Datasets:

siavava

/

ai-tech-articles

like 7

"Cybersecurity startup CrowdStrike raises $200 million at $3 billion valuation | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/19/cybersecurity-startup-crowdstrike-raises-200-million-at-3-billion-valuation"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Cybersecurity startup CrowdStrike raises $200 million at $3 billion valuation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. CrowdStrike , an AI-powered cybersecurity platform specializing in endpoint protection and threat intelligence, has raised $200 million in a series E round of financing co-led by Accel, General Atlantic, and IVP, with participation from existing investor CapitalG — Alphabet’s late-stage venture fund — and March Capital. Founded in 2011, Sunnyvale, California-based CrowdStrike helps companies spot signs of an impending attack and thwart it before a breach occurs. The startup has made a name for itself through investigating and reporting high-profile data leaks around the world, and it was instrumental in proving that Russia had breached the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016. It also demonstrated that North Korea was likely behind the Sony Pictures hack in 2014. The global cybersecurity workforce will be short by 1.8 million people, according to recent reports , and one solution to address this shortage is to leverage artificial intelligence. That is partly why automated security platforms have been raking in the big bucks — including Cylance, Fortscale , Jask , and Darktrace, which have all raised large sums of VC money in recent years. Road to IPO? Prior to now, CrowdStrike had raised around $281 million, including a $100 million round last year that pegged the company at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Following its latest gargantuan cash injection, CrowdStrike said it is now valued at more than $3 billion. It’s clear the company is filling its coffers ahead of a much-anticipated IPO, with the revelation last year that it was “pretty focused on IPO readiness,” in addition to pursuing market expansion. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Earlier this year, however, CrowdStrike CEO and cofounder George Kurtz also suggested that a major company such as Amazon or Google may be interested in buying his startup in order to boost their own cloud security offerings. When probed by VentureBeat, the company wouldn’t provide any update to its IPO plans, but it certainly has enough financing to grow its service around the world — something that it plans to do. “We are building the business to support massive sales volume, and this round of funding will accelerate the growth of our operations, continued innovation, technology development, and geographic expansion,” said Kurtz, in a press release. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"BlackBerry to acquire AI-powered cybersecurity startup Cylance for $1.4 billion | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/11/16/blackberry-to-acquire-ai-powered-cybersecurity-startup-cylance-for-1-4-billion"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages BlackBerry to acquire AI-powered cybersecurity startup Cylance for $1.4 billion Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Cylance Smart Antivirus Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. The rumors , it seems, were true — BlackBerry is acquiring cybersecurity startup Cylance in an all-cash deal worth $1.4 billion. Founded in 2012 by CEO Stuart McClure — an entrepreneur who sold a previous cybersecurity firm to McAfee for $86 million in 2004 — Irvine, California-based Cylance is an endpoint protection platform designed to thwart advanced threats using artificial intelligence (AI). Its suite of security protocols inspects networks for weaknesses and shuts them down if detected, and it doesn’t require a “signature” from an existing threat to block it — it can spot new threats. The company had raised a hefty $300 million since its inception, including a $120 million chunk a few months ago , and it also recently expanded into the consumer market. Since BlackBerry’s exit from the consumer hardware realm, the Canadian company has doubled down on the enterprise, with a particular focus on security. So buying Cylance is entirely in line with its previously stated mission. Indeed, BlackBerry said it plans to leverage Cylance to bolster its Spark Enterprise of Things (EoT) platform , and more specifically its UEM and QNX products. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “Cylance’s leadership in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity will immediately complement our entire portfolio, UEM and QNX in particular,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a press release. “We are very excited to onboard their team and leverage our newly combined expertise. We believe adding Cylance’s capabilities to our trusted advantages in privacy, secure mobility, and embedded systems will make BlackBerry Spark indispensable to realizing the Enterprise of Things.” Big market Global cybersecurity is estimated to be a $232 billion industry by 2022, up from around $138 billion last year, though there will reportedly be a cybersecurity workforce shortfall of 1.8 million by that point. As such, there has been a wave of investment and acquisitions across the industry. In the past year alone, network security company Barracuda went private as part of a $1.6 billion acquisition , AT&T acquired threat intelligence company AlienVault , Cybersecurity startup PhishMe was acquired for $400 million by a private equity consortium, Symantec recently snapped up Appthority and Javelin Networks to bolster its mobile and enterprise security products, and AI-powered cybersecurity platform CrowdStrike raised $200 million at a $3 billion valuation. Elsewhere, there have been at least two notable IPOs for cybersecurity companies this year, with both Zscaler and Carbon Black electing to go public. Judging by Cylance’s recent raises and position as a late-stage venture, it likely had at least one eye on an IPO in the not-too-distant future. BlackBerry has apparently chosen to strike before Cylance’s public plans reached an advanced stage. Exit 2 This latest deal represents the second notable exit for McClure, though at well north of $1 billion, it eclipses his previous sale back in 2004 nearly twentyfold. BlackBerry said it expects to close the deal before the end of February, 2019, at which point Cylance will operate as an independent unit within BlackBerry. “Our highly skilled cybersecurity workforce and market leadership in next-generation endpoint solutions will be a perfect fit within BlackBerry, where our customers, teams, and technologies will gain immediate benefits from BlackBerry’s global reach,” added McClure. “We are eager to leverage BlackBerry’s mobility and security strengths to adapt our advanced AI technology to deliver a single platform.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"SentinelOne raises $120 million to automate endpoint security for enterprises | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/04/sentinelone-raises-120-million-to-automate-endpoint-security-for-enterprises"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages SentinelOne raises $120 million to automate endpoint security for enterprises Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn SentinelOne Dashboard Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. SentinelOne , a cybersecurity company specializing in autonomous endpoint protection, has raised $120 million in a series D round of funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Third Point Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, NextEquity, Data Collective (DCVC), and others. Founded in 2013, Mountain View-based SentinelOne serves companies with protection across all entry points to their network, such as an employee’s laptop or company server, protecting against malware, script-based attacks, and other exploits. Its artificial intelligence (AI) engine, which is embedded at each endpoint and operates without the cloud, works to identify threats through behavioral analysis, rather than relying on signatures for known malware — as is often the case with traditional antivirus software. Above: SentinelOne Dashboard Interestingly, SentinelOne also offers a ransomware warranty of up to $1 million , covering companies in the event that they have to cough up hard cash to regain access to their data. Big business The global cybersecurity market was pegged as a $114 billion market in 2018, a figure that’s expected to grow by around 10% this year. The endpoint protection industry specifically was reportedly worth around $6.4 billion last year, though it’s projected to double by 2022. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! A number of endpoint protection companies have raised bucketloads of cash in recent times, including Cylance, which raised $120 million last summer before it was snapped up by BlackBerry for $1.4 billion. Elsewhere, Crowdstrike raised $200 million at a $3 billion valuation last year, and is currently gearing up to become a public company. So it’s clear there is a big appetite for cybersecurity smarts that focus specifically on endpoint protection. Prior to now, SentinelOne had raised around $110 million, including its $70 million series C round more than two years ago. With another $120 million in the bank, it said that it plans to double down on its efforts to displace “legacy and next-gen competitors” across the endpoint protection sphere. “Endpoints are everywhere today, from classic laptops and desktops, to workloads in the cloud and the data center, and all IoT devices — the network edge is the real perimeter,” noted SentinelOne CEO and cofounder Tomer Weingarten. “We were the first to unify EPP & EDR — prevention, detection, response, and hunting — in a single autonomous agent. We were the first to stand behind our product with a cyber warranty. Now we are the first to take AI-based device protection to the edge, covering IoT endpoints and workloads in the cloud.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"British Airways faces record $230 million GDPR fine over data breach | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/08/british-airways-faces-record-230-million-gdpr-fine-over-data-breach"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages British Airways faces record $230 million GDPR fine over data breach Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A British Airways aircraft taxies on a runway with the Pakistani (L) on June 3, 2019. Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. British Airways (BA) is facing a record £183.39 million ($230 million) fine over a 2018 security breach that compromised the personal data of roughly 500,000 customers. The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it has “issued a notice of its intention” to levy the gargantuan fine against BA, which now has 28 days to appeal before the ICO settles on a final figure. The breach, which the ICO said it believes started back in June 2018 — some three months before it was eventually reported — was the result of “poor security arrangements,” according to a statement. A fraudulent website set up by an unknown third party to receive redirected BA traffic reportedly harvested personal data such as login information, payment card details, names, addresses, and travel booking details. Record fine GDPR regulations, which require companies to report data breaches to the appropriate European authorities within 72 hours of discovery, stipulate that local data protection agencies across the EU bloc can fine companies up to 4% of their total annual revenue. As BA earned around £12.2 billion ($15 billion) last year, the proposed ICO fine equates to around 1.5% of BA’s 2017 income — considerably less than the maximum. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! That said, the BA fine is still by far the largest to result from the GDPR regulations, which went into effect last year. While a number of fines have already been issued under GDPR, they have mostly been in the tens or hundreds of thousands of euros — with one notable exception. Google was hit with a €50 million ($57 million) fine by French data privacy body CNIL back in January over a “lack of transparency” and “inadequate information” about how ads are personalized for each user. It’s worth noting that Facebook was also slapped with a £500,000 ($644,000) fine over the Cambridge Analytica episode; however, that was under the pre-GDPR regulations that were in place at the time. “People’s personal data is just that — personal,” stated U.K. information commissioner Elizabeth Denham. “When an organization fails to protect [that data] from loss, damage, or theft, it is more than an inconvenience. That’s why the law is clear — when you are entrusted with personal data you must look after it. Those that don’t will face scrutiny from my office to check they have taken appropriate steps to protect fundamental privacy rights.” The ICO said BA has “made improvements to its security arrangements” since the incident was reported. GDPR has been a headache for many companies, with some online properties, such as newspapers, electing to go offline in Europe rather than face potentially huge fines. But the regulations are designed to tighten the scope of data protection laws across the EU and ensure internet users have the control mechanisms to manage their data — and that there are sufficient punishments in place for companies that contravene the laws. To aid with GDPR compliance, Google shifted control of its European data from the U.S. to Ireland. As a result of GDPR and similar regulations around the world, a number of startups are pushing to capitalize on the growing demand for data sovereignty and privacy tools. Privitar, for example, recently raised $40 million for a platform that helps enterprises engineer privacy protection into projects that may contain sensitive data. Elsewhere, InCountry launched with $7 million in funding to help multinational companies store customer data locally. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Shape Security eyes IPO after raising $51 million at $1 billion valuation | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/12/shape-security-eyes-ipo-after-raising-51-million-at-1-billion-valuation"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Shape Security eyes IPO after raising $51 million at $1 billion valuation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Shape Security Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Shape Security , a cybersecurity startup that helps businesses prevent fraudulent use of their online systems, has raised $51 million in a round of funding led by C5 Capital, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, HPE Growth, Norwest Ventures Partners, Focus Ventures, JetBlue Technology Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, and Epic Ventures. As a result of this latest investment, Shape Security has also now entered the much-coveted “unicorn” club, claiming a valuation of $1 billion. Founded in 2011, Mountain View-based Shape Security’s core raison d’être is to help big businesses such as banks prevent fraud from so-called “imitation attacks,” whereby bots attempt to access other people’s accounts through credential stuffing, creating fake accounts, scraping data, and more. So this is less stopping someone from sneaking in through the backdoor under an invisible cloak, and more spotting someone strolling through the front door with a fake beard and prosthetic nose. Many cyberattacks center around automated techniques that prod and poke at online systems until they find a way in. An attacker may have a trove of stolen credit card details, for example, but to test them each out manually for validity would take too long — so they perform the check once themselves, and then train a bot to carry out that same check on other card details until they have found out which ones are usable. Malware can also be used to hijack devices remotely, or an attacker may steal various pieces of someone’s identity to try to apply for a new credit card. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The bottom line is, it’s relatively easy to carry out large-scale cyberattacks through imitation and automation, which is why Shape Security is also using automation to detect such attacks. Above: Shape Security dashboard The AI effect Working across websites, native mobile apps, and API endpoints, Shape Security leverages historical data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to figure out whether a “user” is real or fraudulent, and if it determines that it’s the latter, it puts blocks in place. Attackers will often try again by changing their methods, to which Shape Security also has to adapt. The company doesn’t divulge all the signals it uses to separate bot from human, as it said this would give cybercriminals too much information, but it does monitor things like keystrokes and mouse movements, in addition to system details such as whether a device has been rooted. The information it uses ultimately depends on the nature of the attack. “We use some signals to detect known attack tools, others to detect bot-like behavior, and still others to amass a list of lies the user agent is trying to tell,” Jarrod Overson, Shape Security’s director of engineering, told VentureBeat. “Thousands of features get processed by Shape’s decision engine to determine if traffic is legitimate or fraudulent.” Shape Security said that it thwarts as many as 2 billion fraudulent or “unwanted” transactions each day, and claims that more than half of all online banking customers in North America are protected by its technology. Moreover, the more that companies use Shape Security’s technology, the better it should get as it is exposed to increasingly more data. That, after all, is what any good machine learning system is designed to do. “Shape has multiple machine learning systems, and all the data comes from Shape’s telemetry and the network metadata,” Overson continued. “Some systems learn from other customers’ data to build preventative countermeasures; other systems learn from good user behavior and identify anomalies from there.” Prior to now, Shape Security had raised north of $130 million from big-name backers including Alphabet’s GV and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures. With another $51 million in the bank, it said that it plans to grow its platform globally and double down on its AI capabilities. “This investment will help us scale our international operations and fuel our AI development,” Shape Security cofounder and CEO Derek Smith added in a statement. “Our new and returning investors, coupled with our continued track record of growth, underscore our vision to protect all enterprises from fraudulent Internet transactions.” Market size The global cybersecurity market was pegged at sizable $152 billion in 2018, and it’s expected to grow to $250 billion within a few years. With more and more business taking place online, every company is effectively becoming a software company, which means all the more targets for cybercriminals — barely a day goes by without some form of data breach , hack , or security lapse making headlines around the world. Automation meshed with cybersecurity also sits in a very sweet spot both for investors and larger companies looking to bolster their product through acquisitions. Indeed, much has been said about a projected cybersecurity workforce shortfall , which is one of the reasons why automated tools are particularly appealing to enterprises and investors. Back in June , CrowdStrike — an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that offers endpoint protection and threat intelligence — went public, and so far it has performed well, with shares currently sitting at more than double the IPO price. And last year, BlackBerry snapped up AI-enabled security startup Cylance for more than $1 billion. As a new entrant to the unicorn brigade, does this mean that Shape Security has one eye on an exit? Apparently so — “preparation for an IPO is part of our plan,” Shape Security CMO Mike Plante told VentureBeat, without elaborating on a timescale. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Facebook still can't control the far-right political propaganda monster it built | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/27/facebook-still-cant-control-the-far-right-political-propaganda-monster-it-built"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook still can’t control the far-right political propaganda monster it built Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Dozens of cardboard cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are seen during an Avaaz.org protest outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., April 10, 2018. Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. News about Facebook in the week leading up to the European Union Parliamentary elections reinforced the image of a company unable to control a platform that has been hijacked by right-wing extremists. In the U.S., pundits, politicians, and journalists were shocked — shocked! — that Facebook refused to remove a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While the video gained millions of views, a Facebook spokesperson offered a non-explanation for the decision, saying: “We think it’s important for people to make their own informed choice for what to believe.” But in Europe the picture was even grimmer. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! A study dubbed “Fakewatch” released by global citizens’ movement Avaaz, which monitors election freedom and disinformation, found what the group identified as 500 suspicious pages and groups linked to right-wing and anti-EU organizations that were spreading massive disinformation. “Far-right and anti-EU groups are weaponizing social media at scale to spread false and hateful content,” the study says. “Our findings were shared with Facebook and resulted in an unprecedented shutdown of Facebook pages just before voters head to the polls.” Indeed, Facebook subsequently took down 77 of the pages and groups reported by Avaaz. Overall, those 500 pages and groups were followed by 32 million people and had more than 67 million “interactions” (comments, likes, shares) over the past three months. This has become a standard cycle in Europe. Facebook says it is cracking down on such content, but it is often Avaaz reporting the malfeasance and abuse that prompts action. Last month, Avaaz r eported widespread abuses of Facebook and WhatsApp ahead of Spanish elections, after which Facebook belatedly removed some pages and groups. In France, Avaaz found in another report that Facebook had generated more than 105 million views of fake news about the country’s Yellow Vest movement. Avaaz campaign director Christoph Schott said bad actors’ tactics have evolved, as they now play a long game when it comes to manipulating Facebook’s platform. For instance, he said many of these groups started several years ago under innocuous names and focused on mundane subjects. At some point, the groups would change names and become funnels for right-wing content targeting people who hadn’t necessarily signed up for such topics. In other cases, the groups lie dormant for years and then are suddenly re-activated to help extremist content ricochet around Facebook’s platform, he said. As a result, it’s hard to know if Facebook is fighting a losing battle or is just not fighting. But Avaaz thinks the platform could and should do more. “We are 30 people working on this stuff for three months,” he said. “It’s all stuff Facebook could have detected, like page name changes. This should not be allowed to happen. Right now, it seems that Facebook is ignoring its own rules.” Rather than simply forcing groups to remove fake content, Avaaz advocates requiring Facebook to show corrected or verified information to everyone who saw the original malicious content. Alas, Avaaz wasn’t the only research group to publish alarming findings. The Oxford University-based Computational Propaganda Project came out with a study looking at the spread of junk news during the EU election season. The report noted: “On Facebook, while many more users interact with mainstream content overall, individual junk news stories can still hugely outperform even the best, most important, professionally produced stories, drawing as much as 4 times the volume of shares, likes, and comments.” But ironically (or perhaps not), the most damning statistic last week came from Facebook itself. In its latest Community Standards Enforcement Report , the company revealed that it had taken down 2.19 billion fake accounts during the first three months of 2019. That’s up from 1.2 billion accounts disabled during the last three months of 2018. “The [number] of accounts we took action on increased due to automated attacks by bad actors who attempt to create large volumes of accounts at one time,” the company said in a blog post. Those almost 3.4 billion bad accounts over six months are compared to the 2.37 billion active monthly users the company reported it has. Facebook says it is confident that the majority of these bad accounts were zapped almost as soon as they were created and had little impact. But Schott said he found the trend disturbing, another sign that right-wing groups are investing even more time and resources into harnessing Facebook’s platform to spread their messages. “It shows the number of actors trying to do damage,” Schott said. “And that’s frightening.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower | Cambridge Analytica | The Guardian"

"https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump"

"For more than a year we’ve been investigating Cambridge Analytica and its links to the Brexit Leave campaign in the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election. Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorate News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Show More Show More document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var columnInput = document.getElementById('News-button'); if (!columnInput) return; // Sticky nav replaces the nav so element no longer exists for users in test. columnInput.addEventListener('keydown', function(e){ // keyCode: 13 => Enter key | keyCode: 32 => Space key if (e.keyCode === 13 || e.keyCode === 32) { e.preventDefault() document.getElementById('News-checkbox-input').click(); } }) }) News View all News US news World news Environment US politics Ukraine Soccer Business Tech Science Newsletters Wellness document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var columnInput = document.getElementById('Opinion-button'); if (!columnInput) return; // Sticky nav replaces the nav so element no longer exists for users in test. columnInput.addEventListener('keydown', function(e){ // keyCode: 13 => Enter key | keyCode: 32 => Space key if (e.keyCode === 13 || e.keyCode === 32) { e.preventDefault() document.getElementById('Opinion-checkbox-input').click(); } }) }) Opinion View all Opinion The Guardian view Columnists Letters Opinion videos Cartoons document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var columnInput = document.getElementById('Sport-button'); if (!columnInput) return; // Sticky nav replaces the nav so element no longer exists for users in test. columnInput.addEventListener('keydown', function(e){ // keyCode: 13 => Enter key | keyCode: 32 => Space key if (e.keyCode === 13 || e.keyCode === 32) { e.preventDefault() document.getElementById('Sport-checkbox-input').click(); } }) }) Sport View all Sport Soccer NFL Tennis MLB MLS NBA NHL F1 Golf document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var columnInput = document.getElementById('Culture-button'); if (!columnInput) return; // Sticky nav replaces the nav so element no longer exists for users in test. columnInput.addEventListener('keydown', function(e){ // keyCode: 13 => Enter key | keyCode: 32 => Space key if (e.keyCode === 13 || e.keyCode === 32) { e.preventDefault() document.getElementById('Culture-checkbox-input').click(); } }) }) Culture View all Culture Film Books Music Art & design TV & radio Stage Classical Games document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var columnInput = document.getElementById('Lifestyle-button'); if (!columnInput) return; // Sticky nav replaces the nav so element no longer exists for users in test. columnInput.addEventListener('keydown', function(e){ // keyCode: 13 => Enter key | keyCode: 32 => Space key if (e.keyCode === 13 || e.keyCode === 32) { e.preventDefault() document.getElementById('Lifestyle-checkbox-input').click(); } }) }) Lifestyle View all Lifestyle Wellness Fashion Food Recipes Love & sex Home & garden Health & fitness Family Travel Money Search input google-search Search Support us Print subscriptions document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){ var columnInput = document.getElementById('US-edition-button'); if (!columnInput) return; // Sticky nav replaces the nav so element no longer exists for users in test. columnInput.addEventListener('keydown', function(e){ // keyCode: 13 => Enter key | keyCode: 32 => Space key if (e.keyCode === 13 || e.keyCode === 32) { e.preventDefault() document.getElementById('US-edition-checkbox-input').click(); } }) }) US edition UK edition Australia edition International edition Europe edition Search jobs Digital Archive Guardian Puzzles app Guardian Licensing The Guardian app Video Podcasts Pictures Inside the Guardian Guardian Weekly Crosswords Wordiply Corrections Facebook Twitter Search jobs Digital Archive Guardian Puzzles app Guardian Licensing Former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer The Cambridge Analytica Files ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower Former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer For more than a year we’ve been investigating Cambridge Analytica and its links to the Brexit Leave campaign in the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election. Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorate Carole Cadwalladr Sun 18 Mar 2018 05.44 EDT The first time I met Christopher Wylie, he didn’t yet have pink hair. That comes later. As does his mission to rewind time. To put the genie back in the bottle. By the time I met him in person , I’d already been talking to him on a daily basis for hours at a time. On the phone, he was clever, funny, bitchy, profound, intellectually ravenous, compelling. A master storyteller. A politicker. A data science nerd. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: 'We spent $1m harvesting millions of Facebook profiles' – video Two months later, when he arrived in London from Canada, he was all those things in the flesh. And yet the flesh was impossibly young. He was 27 then (he’s 28 now), a fact that has always seemed glaringly at odds with what he has done. He may have played a pivotal role in the momentous political upheavals of 2016. At the very least, he played a consequential role. At 24, he came up with an idea that led to the foundation of a company called Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that went on to claim a major role in the Leave campaign for Britain’s EU membership referendum, and later became a key figure in digital operations during Donald Trump’s election campaign. Or, as Wylie describes it, he was the gay Canadian vegan who somehow ended up creating “ Steve Bannon ’s psychological warfare mindfuck tool”. In 2014, Steve Bannon – then executive chairman of the “alt-right” news network Breitbart – was Wylie’s boss. And Robert Mercer , the secretive US hedge-fund billionaire and Republican donor, was Cambridge Analytica’s investor. And the idea they bought into was to bring big data and social media to an established military methodology – “information operations” – then turn it on the US electorate. It was Wylie who came up with that idea and oversaw its realisation. And it was Wylie who, last spring, became my source. In May 2017, I wrote an article headlined “The great British Brexit robbery” , which set out a skein of threads that linked Brexit to Trump to Russia. Wylie was one of a handful of individuals who provided the evidence behind it. I found him, via another Cambridge Analytica ex-employee, lying low in Canada: guilty, brooding, indignant, confused. “I haven’t talked about this to anyone,” he said at the time. And then he couldn’t stop talking. By that time, Steve Bannon had become Trump’s chief strategist. Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL, had won contracts with the US State Department and was pitching to the Pentagon, and Wylie was genuinely freaked out. “It’s insane,” he told me one night. “The company has created psychological profiles of 230 million Americans. And now they want to work with the Pentagon? It’s like Nixon on steroids.” He ended up showing me a tranche of documents that laid out the secret workings behind Cambridge Analytica. And in the months following publication of my article in May, it was revealed that the company had “reached out” to WikiLeaks to help distribute Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails in 2016. And then we watched as it became a subject of special counsel Robert Mueller ’s investigation into possible Russian collusion in the US election. The Observer also received the first of three letters from Cambridge Analytica threatening to sue Guardian News and Media for defamation. We are still only just starting to understand the maelstrom of forces that came together to create the conditions for what Mueller confirmed last month was “information warfare”. But Wylie offers a unique, worm’s-eye view of the events of 2016. Of how Facebook was hijacked, repurposed to become a theatre of war: how it became a launchpad for what seems to be an extraordinary attack on the US’s democratic process. Wylie oversaw what may have been the first critical breach. Aged 24, while studying for a PhD in fashion trend forecasting, he came up with a plan to harvest the Facebook profiles of millions of people in the US, and to use their private and personal information to create sophisticated psychological and political profiles. And then target them with political ads designed to work on their particular psychological makeup. “We ‘broke’ Facebook ,” he says. And he did it on behalf of his new boss, Steve Bannon. “Is it fair to say you ‘hacked’ Facebook?” I ask him one night. He hesitates. “I’ll point out that I assumed it was entirely legal and above board.” Last month, Facebook’s UK director of policy, Simon Milner, told British MPs on a select committee inquiry into fake news, chaired by Conservative MP Damian Collins, that Cambridge Analytica did not have Facebook data. The official Hansard extract reads: Christian Matheson (MP for Chester): “Have you ever passed any user information over to Cambridge Analytica or any of its associated companies?” Simon Milner: “No.” Matheson: “But they do hold a large chunk of Facebook’s user data, don’t they?” Milner: “No. They may have lots of data, but it will not be Facebook user data. It may be data about people who are on Facebook that they have gathered themselves, but it is not data that we have provided.” Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analytica CEO. Two weeks later, on 27 February, as part of the same parliamentary inquiry, Rebecca Pow, MP for Taunton Deane, asked Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Alexander Nix : “Does any of the data come from Facebook?” Nix replied: “We do not work with Facebook data and we do not have Facebook data.” And through it all, Wylie and I, plus a handful of editors and a small, international group of academics and researchers, have known that – at least in 2014 – that certainly wasn’t the case, because Wylie has the paper trail. In our first phone call, he told me he had the receipts, invoices, emails, legal letters – records that showed how, between June and August 2014, the profiles of more than 50 million Facebook users had been harvested. Most damning of all, he had a letter from Facebook’s own lawyers admitting that Cambridge Analytica had acquired the data illegitimately. Going public involves an enormous amount of risk. Wylie is breaking a non-disclosure agreement and risks being sued. He is breaking the confidence of Steve Bannon and Robert Mercer. It’s taken a rollercoaster of a year to help get Wylie to a place where it’s possible for him to finally come forward. A year in which Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of investigations on both sides of the Atlantic – Robert Mueller’s in the US, and separate inquiries by the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK, both triggered in February 2017, after the Observer ’s first article in this investigation. It has been a year, too, in which Wylie has been trying his best to rewind – to undo events that he set in motion. Earlier this month, he submitted a dossier of evidence to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Crime Agency’s cybercrime unit. He is now in a position to go on the record: the data nerd who came in from the cold. There are many points where this story could begin. One is in 2012, when Wylie was 21 and working for the Liberal Democrats in the UK, then in government as junior coalition partners. His career trajectory has been, like most aspects of his life so far, extraordinary, preposterous, implausible. Profile Cambridge Analytica: the key players Show Alexander Nix, CEO An Old Etonian with a degree from Manchester University, Nix, 42, worked as a financial analyst in Mexico and the UK before joining SCL, a strategic communications firm, in 2003. From 2007 he took over the company’s elections division, and claims to have worked on 260 campaigns globally. He set up Cambridge Analytica to work in America, with investment from Robert Mercer. Aleksandr Kogan, data miner Aleksandr Kogan was born in Moldova and lived in Moscow until the age of seven, then moved with his family to the US, where he became a naturalised citizen. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and got his PhD at the University of Hong Kong before joining Cambridge as a lecturer in psychology and expert in social media psychometrics. He set up Global Science Research (GSR) to carry out CA’s data research. While at Cambridge he accepted a position at St Petersburg State University, and also took Russian government grants for research. He changed his name to Spectre when he married, but later reverted to Kogan. Steve Bannon, former board member A former investment banker turned “alt-right” media svengali, Steve Bannon was boss at website Breitbart when he met Christopher Wylie and Nix and advised Robert Mercer to invest in political data research by setting up CA. In August 2016 he became Donald Trump’s campaign CEO. Bannon encouraged the reality TV star to embrace the “populist, economic nationalist” agenda that would carry him into the White House. That earned Bannon the post of chief strategist to the president and for a while he was arguably the second most powerful man in America. By August 2017 his relationship with Trump had soured and he was out. Robert Mercer, investor Robert Mercer, 71, is a computer scientist and hedge fund billionaire, who used his fortune to become one of the most influential men in US politics as a top Republican donor. An AI expert, he made a fortune with quantitative trading pioneers Renaissance Technologies, then built a $60m war chest to back conservative causes by using an offshore investment vehicle to avoid US tax. Rebekah Mercer, investor Rebekah Mercer has a maths degree from Stanford, and worked as a trader, but her influence comes primarily from her father’s billions. The fortysomething, the second of Mercer’s three daughters, heads up the family foundation which channels money to rightwing groups. The conservative mega‑donors backed Breitbart, Bannon and, most influentially, poured millions into Trump’s presidential campaign. Wylie grew up in British Columbia and as a teenager he was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. He left school at 16 without a single qualification. Yet at 17, he was working in the office of the leader of the Canadian opposition; at 18, he went to learn all things data from Obama’s national director of targeting, which he then introduced to Canada for the Liberal party. At 19, he taught himself to code, and in 2010, age 20, he came to London to study law at the London School of Economics. “Politics is like the mob, though,” he says. “You never really leave. I got a call from the Lib Dems. They wanted to upgrade their databases and voter targeting. So, I combined working for them with studying for my degree.” Politics is also where he feels most comfortable. He hated school, but as an intern in the Canadian parliament he discovered a world where he could talk to adults and they would listen. He was the kid who did the internet stuff and within a year he was working for the leader of the opposition. “He’s one of the brightest people you will ever meet,” a senior politician who’s known Wylie since he was 20 told me. “Sometimes that’s a blessing and sometimes a curse.” Meanwhile, at Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Centre , two psychologists, Michal Kosinski and David Stillwell, were experimenting with a way of studying personality – by quantifying it. Starting in 2007, Stillwell, while a student, had devised various apps for Facebook, one of which, a personality quiz called myPersonality , had gone viral. Users were scored on “big five” personality traits – Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism – and in exchange, 40% of them consented to give him access to their Facebook profiles. Suddenly, there was a way of measuring personality traits across the population and correlating scores against Facebook “likes” across millions of people. Examples, above and below, of the visual messages trialled by GSR’s online profiling test. Respondents were asked: How important should this message be to all Americans? The research was original, groundbreaking and had obvious possibilities. “They had a lot of approaches from the security services,” a member of the centre told me. “There was one called You Are What You Like and it was demonstrated to the intelligence services. And it showed these odd patterns; that, for example, people who liked ‘I hate Israel’ on Facebook also tended to like Nike shoes and KitKats. “There are agencies that fund research on behalf of the intelligence services. And they were all over this research. That one was nicknamed Operation KitKat.” The defence and military establishment were the first to see the potential of the research. Boeing, a major US defence contractor, funded Kosinski’s PhD and Darpa , the US government’s secretive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is cited in at least two academic papers supporting Kosinski’s work. But when, in 2013, the first major paper was published, others saw this potential too, including Wylie. He had finished his degree and had started his PhD in fashion forecasting, and was thinking about the Lib Dems. It is fair to say that he didn’t have a clue what he was walking into. “I wanted to know why the Lib Dems sucked at winning elections when they used to run the country up to the end of the 19th century,” Wylie explains. “And I began looking at consumer and demographic data to see what united Lib Dem voters, because apart from bits of Wales and the Shetlands it’s weird, disparate regions. And what I found is there were no strong correlations. There was no signal in the data. “And then I came across a paper about how personality traits could be a precursor to political behaviour, and it suddenly made sense. Liberalism is correlated with high openness and low conscientiousness, and when you think of Lib Dems they’re absent-minded professors and hippies. They’re the early adopters… they’re highly open to new ideas. And it just clicked all of a sudden.” Here was a way for the party to identify potential new voters. The only problem was that the Lib Dems weren’t interested. “I did this presentation at which I told them they would lose half their 57 seats, and they were like: ‘Why are you so pessimistic?’ They actually lost all but eight of their seats, FYI.” Another Lib Dem connection introduced Wylie to a company called SCL Group , one of whose subsidiaries, SCL Elections, would go on to create Cambridge Analytica (an incorporated venture between SCL Elections and Robert Mercer, funded by the latter). For all intents and purposes, SCL/Cambridge Analytica are one and the same. Alexander Nix, then CEO of SCL Elections, made Wylie an offer he couldn’t resist. “He said: ‘We’ll give you total freedom. Experiment. Come and test out all your crazy ideas.’” Another example of the visual messages trialled by GSR’s online profiling test. In the history of bad ideas, this turned out to be one of the worst. The job was research director across the SCL group, a private contractor that has both defence and elections operations. Its defence arm was a contractor to the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the US’s Department of Defense, among others. Its expertise was in “psychological operations” – or psyops – changing people’s minds not through persuasion but through “informational dominance”, a set of techniques that includes rumour, disinformation and fake news. SCL Elections had used a similar suite of tools in more than 200 elections around the world, mostly in undeveloped democracies that Wylie would come to realise were unequipped to defend themselves. Wylie holds a British Tier 1 Exceptional Talent visa – a UK work visa given to just 200 people a year. He was working inside government (with the Lib Dems) as a political strategist with advanced data science skills. But no one, least of all him, could have predicted what came next. When he turned up at SCL’s offices in Mayfair, he had no clue that he was walking into the middle of a nexus of defence and intelligence projects, private contractors and cutting-edge cyberweaponry. “The thing I think about all the time is, what if I’d taken a job at Deloitte instead? They offered me one. I just think if I’d taken literally any other job, Cambridge Analytica wouldn’t exist. You have no idea how much I brood on this.” A few months later, in autumn 2013, Wylie met Steve Bannon. At the time, he was editor-in-chief of Breitbart, which he had brought to Britain to support his friend Nigel Farage in his mission to take Britain out of the European Union. What was he like? “Smart,” says Wylie. “Interesting. Really interested in ideas. He’s the only straight man I’ve ever talked to about intersectional feminist theory. He saw its relevance straightaway to the oppressions that conservative, young white men feel.” Wylie meeting Bannon was the moment petrol was poured on a flickering flame. Wylie lives for ideas. He speaks 19 to the dozen for hours at a time. He had a theory to prove. And at the time, this was a purely intellectual problem. Politics was like fashion, he told Bannon. “[Bannon] got it immediately. He believes in the whole Andrew Breitbart doctrine that politics is downstream from culture, so to change politics you need to change culture. And fashion trends are a useful proxy for that. Trump is like a pair of Uggs, or Crocs, basically. So how do you get from people thinking ‘Ugh. Totally ugly’ to the moment when everyone is wearing them? That was the inflection point he was looking for.” But Wylie wasn’t just talking about fashion. He had recently been exposed to a new discipline: “information operations”, which ranks alongside land, sea, air and space in the US military’s doctrine of the “five-dimensional battle space”. His brief ranged across the SCL Group – the British government has paid SCL to conduct counter-extremism operations in the Middle East, and the US Department of Defense has contracted it to work in Afghanistan. I tell him that another former employee described the firm as “MI6 for hire”, and I’d never quite understood it. “It’s like dirty MI6 because you’re not constrained. There’s no having to go to a judge to apply for permission. It’s normal for a ‘market research company’ to amass data on domestic populations. And if you’re working in some country and there’s an auxiliary benefit to a current client with aligned interests, well that’s just a bonus.” When I ask how Bannon even found SCL, Wylie tells me what sounds like a tall tale, though it’s one he can back up with an email about how Mark Block , a veteran Republican strategist, happened to sit next to a cyberwarfare expert for the US air force on a plane. “And the cyberwarfare guy is like, ‘Oh, you should meet SCL. They do cyberwarfare for elections.’” Steve Bannon: ‘He loved the gays,’ says Wylie. ‘He saw us as early adopters.’ It was Bannon who took this idea to the Mercers: Robert Mercer – the co-CEO of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies , who used his billions to pursue a rightwing agenda, donating to Republican causes and supporting Republican candidates – and his daughter Rebekah. Nix and Wylie flew to New York to meet the Mercers in Rebekah’s Manhattan apartment. “She loved me. She was like, ‘Oh we need more of your type on our side!’” Your type? “The gays. She loved the gays. So did Steve [Bannon]. He saw us as early adopters. He figured, if you can get the gays on board, everyone else will follow. It’s why he was so into the whole Milo [Yiannopoulos] thing.” Robert Mercer was a pioneer in AI and machine translation. He helped invent algorithmic trading – which replaced hedge fund managers with computer programs – and he listened to Wylie’s pitch. It was for a new kind of political message-targeting based on an influential and groundbreaking 2014 paper researched at Cambridge’s Psychometrics Centre , called: “Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans”. “In politics, the money man is usually the dumbest person in the room. Whereas it’s the opposite way around with Mercer,” says Wylie. “He said very little, but he really listened. He wanted to understand the science. And he wanted proof that it worked.” And to do that, Wylie needed data. How Cambridge Analytica acquired the data has been the subject of internal reviews at Cambridge University, of many news articles and much speculation and rumour. When Nix was interviewed by MPs last month, Damian Collins asked him: “Does any of your data come from Global Science Research company?” Nix: “GSR?” Collins: “Yes.” Nix: “We had a relationship with GSR. They did some research for us back in 2014. That research proved to be fruitless and so the answer is no.” Collins: “They have not supplied you with data or information?” Nix: “No.” Collins: “Your datasets are not based on information you have received from them?” Nix: “No.” Collins: “At all?” Nix: “At all.” The problem with Nix’s response to Collins is that Wylie has a copy of an executed contract, dated 4 June 2014, which confirms that SCL, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, entered into a commercial arrangement with a company called Global Science Research (GSR), owned by Cambridge-based academic Aleksandr Kogan, specifically premised on the harvesting and processing of Facebook data, so that it could be matched to personality traits and voter rolls. He has receipts showing that Cambridge Analytica spent $7m to amass this data, about $1m of it with GSR. He has the bank records and wire transfers. Emails reveal Wylie first negotiated to use the myPersonality database using another psychologist, Aleksandr Kogan, who communicated with Michal Kosinski, one of the co-authors of the original myPersonality research paper. But when negotiations broke down, Kogan offered a solution that many of his colleagues considered unethical. He offered to replicate Kosinski and Stillwell’s research and cut them and the university out of the deal. For Wylie it seemed a perfect solution. “Kosinski was asking for $500,000 for the IP but Kogan said he could replicate it and just harvest his own set of data.” (Kosinski says the fee was to fund further university research; it was not for him and Stillwell personally.) An unethical solution? Dr Aleksandr Kogan Kogan then set up GSR to do the work, and proposed to Wylie they use the data to set up an interdisciplinary institute working across the social sciences. “What happened to that idea,” I ask Wylie. “It never happened. I don’t know why. That’s one of the things that upsets me the most.” It was Bannon’s interest in culture as war that ignited Wylie’s intellectual concept. But it was Robert Mercer’s millions that created a firestorm. Kogan was able to throw money at the hard problem of acquiring personal data: he advertised for people who were willing to be paid to take a personality quiz on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and Qualtrics. At the end of which Kogan’s app, called thisismydigitallife, gave him permission to access their Facebook profiles. And not just theirs, but their friends’ too. On average, each “seeder” – the people who had taken the personality test, around 320,000 in total – unwittingly gave access to at least 160 other people’s profiles, none of whom would have known or had reason to suspect. What the email correspondence between Cambridge Analytica employees and Kogan shows is that Kogan had collected millions of profiles in a matter of weeks. But neither Wylie nor anyone else at Cambridge Analytica had checked that it was legal. It certainly wasn’t authorised. Kogan did have permission to pull Facebook data, but for academic purposes only. What’s more, under British data protection laws, it’s illegal for personal data to be sold to a third party without consent. “Facebook could see it was happening,” says Wylie. “Their security protocols were triggered because Kogan’s apps were pulling this enormous amount of data, but apparently Kogan told them it was for academic use. So they were like, ‘Fine’.” Kogan maintains that everything he did was legal and he had a “close working relationship” with Facebook, which had granted him permission for his apps. Cambridge Analytica had its data. This was the foundation of everything it did next – how it extracted psychological insights from the “seeders” and then built an algorithm to profile millions more. For more than a year, the reporting around what Cambridge Analytica did or didn’t do for Trump has revolved around the question of “psychographics”, but Wylie points out: “Everything was built on the back of that data. The models, the algorithm. Everything. Why wouldn’t you use it in your biggest campaign ever?” In December 2015, the Guardian ’s Harry Davies published the first report about Cambridge Analytica acquiring Facebook data and using it to support Ted Cruz in his campaign to be the US Republican candidate. But it wasn’t until many months later that Facebook took action. And then, all they did was write a letter. In August 2016, shortly before the US election, and two years after the breach took place, Facebook’s lawyers wrote to Wylie, who left Cambridge Analytica in 2014, and told him the data had been illicitly obtained and that “GSR was not authorised to share or sell it”. They said it must be deleted immediately. Christopher Wylie: ‘It’s like Nixon on steroids’ “I already had. But literally all I had to do was tick a box and sign it and send it back, and that was it,” says Wylie. “Facebook made zero effort to get the data back.” There were multiple copies of it. It had been emailed in unencrypted files. Cambridge Analytica rejected all allegations the Observer put to them. Dr Kogan – who later changed his name to Dr Spectre, but has subsequently changed it back to Dr Kogan – is still a faculty member at Cambridge University, a senior research associate. But what his fellow academics didn’t know until Kogan revealed it in emails to the Observer (although Cambridge University says that Kogan told the head of the psychology department), is that he is also an associate professor at St Petersburg University. Further research revealed that he’s received grants from the Russian government to research “Stress, health and psychological wellbeing in social networks”. The opportunity came about on a trip to the city to visit friends and family, he said. There are other dramatic documents in Wylie’s stash, including a pitch made by Cambridge Analytica to Lukoil , Russia’s second biggest oil producer. In an email dated 17 July 2014, about the US presidential primaries, Nix wrote to Wylie: “We have been asked to write a memo to Lukoil (the Russian oil and gas company) to explain to them how our services are going to apply to the petroleum business. Nix said that “they understand behavioural microtargeting in the context of elections” but that they were “failing to make the connection between voters and their consumers”. The work, he said, would be “shared with the CEO of the business”, a former Soviet oil minister and associate of Putin, Vagit Alekperov. “It didn’t make any sense to me,” says Wylie. “I didn’t understand either the email or the pitch presentation we did. Why would a Russian oil company want to target information on American voters?” Mueller’s investigation traces the first stages of the Russian operation to disrupt the 2016 US election back to 2014, when the Russian state made what appears to be its first concerted efforts to harness the power of America’s social media platforms, including Facebook. And it was in late summer of the same year that Cambridge Analytica presented the Russian oil company with an outline of its datasets, capabilities and methodology. The presentation had little to do with “consumers”. Instead, documents show it focused on election disruption techniques. The first slide illustrates how a “rumour campaign” spread fear in the 2007 Nigerian election – in which the company worked – by spreading the idea that the “election would be rigged”. The final slide, branded with Lukoil’s logo and that of SCL Group and SCL Elections, headlines its “deliverables”: “psychographic messaging”. Robert Mercer with his daughter Rebekah. Lukoil is a private company, but its CEO, Alekperov, answers to Putin, and it’s been used as a vehicle of Russian influence in Europe and elsewhere – including in the Czech Republic, where in 2016 it was revealed that an adviser to the strongly pro-Russian Czech president was being paid by the company. When I asked Bill Browder – an Anglo-American businessman who is leading a global campaign for a Magnitsky Act to enforce sanctions against Russian individuals – what he made of it, he said: “Everyone in Russia is subordinate to Putin. One should be highly suspicious of any Russian company pitching anything outside its normal business activities.” Last month, Nix told MPs on the parliamentary committee investigating fake news: “We have never worked with a Russian organisation in Russia or any other company. We do not have any relationship with Russia or Russian individuals.” There’s no evidence that Cambridge Analytica ever did any work for Lukoil. What these documents show, though, is that in 2014 one of Russia’s biggest companies was fully briefed on: Facebook, microtargeting, data, election disruption. Cambridge Analytica is “Chris’s Frankenstein”, says a friend of his. “He created it. It’s his data Frankenmonster. And now he’s trying to put it right.” Only once has Wylie made the case of pointing out that he was 24 at the time. But he was. He thrilled to the intellectual possibilities of it. He didn’t think of the consequences. And I wonder how much he’s processed his own role or responsibility in it. Instead, he’s determined to go on the record and undo this thing he has created. Because the past few months have been like watching a tornado gathering force. And when Wylie turns the full force of his attention to something – his strategic brain, his attention to detail, his ability to plan 12 moves ahead – it is sometimes slightly terrifying to behold. Dealing with someone trained in information warfare has its own particular challenges, and his suite of extraordinary talents include the kind of high-level political skills that makes House of Cards look like The Great British Bake Off. And not everyone’s a fan. Any number of ex-colleagues – even the ones who love him – call him “Machiavellian”. Another described the screaming matches he and Nix would have. “What do your parents make of your decision to come forward?” I ask him. “They get it. My dad sent me a cartoon today, which had two characters hanging off a cliff, and the first one’s saying ‘Hang in there.’ And the other is like: ‘Fuck you.’” Which are you? “Probably both.” What isn’t in doubt is what a long, fraught journey it has been to get to this stage. And how fearless he is. After many months, I learn the terrible, dark backstory that throws some light on his determination, and which he discusses candidly. At six, while at school, Wylie was abused by a mentally unstable person. The school tried to cover it up, blaming his parents, and a long court battle followed. Wylie’s childhood and school career never recovered. His parents – his father is a doctor and his mother is a psychiatrist – were wonderful, he says. “But they knew the trajectory of people who are put in that situation, so I think it was particularly difficult for them, because they had a deeper understanding of what that does to a person long term.” He says he grew up listening to psychologists discuss him in the third person, and, aged 14, he successfully sued the British Columbia Ministry of Education and forced it to change its inclusion policies around bullying. What I observe now is how much he loves the law, lawyers, precision, order. I come to think of his pink hair as a false-flag operation. What he cannot tolerate is bullying. Is what Cambridge Analytica does akin to bullying? “I think it’s worse than bullying,” Wylie says. “Because people don’t necessarily know it’s being done to them. At least bullying respects the agency of people because they know. So it’s worse, because if you do not respect the agency of people, anything that you’re doing after that point is not conducive to a democracy. And fundamentally, information warfare is not conducive to democracy.” Russia, Facebook, Trump, Mercer, Bannon, Brexit. Every one of these threads runs through Cambridge Analytica. Even in the past few weeks, it seems as if the understanding of Facebook’s role has broadened and deepened. The Mueller indictments were part of that, but Paul-Olivier Dehaye – a data expert and academic based in Switzerland, who published some of the first research into Cambridge Analytica’s processes – says it’s become increasingly apparent that Facebook is “abusive by design”. If there is evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, it will be in the platform’s data flows, he says. And Wylie’s revelations only move it on again. “Facebook has denied and denied and denied this,” Dehaye says when told of the Observer ’s new evidence. “It has misled MPs and congressional investigators and it’s failed in its duties to respect the law. It has a legal obligation to inform regulators and individuals about this data breach, and it hasn’t. It’s failed time and time again to be open and transparent.” Facebook denies that the data transfer was a breach. In addition, a spokesperson said: “Protecting people’s information is at the heart of everything we do, and we require the same from people who operate apps on Facebook. If these reports are true, it’s a serious abuse of our rules. Both Aleksandr Kogan as well as the SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica certified to us that they destroyed the data in question.” Millions of people’s personal information was stolen and used to target them in ways they wouldn’t have seen, and couldn’t have known about, by a mercenary outfit, Cambridge Analytica, who, Wylie says, “would work for anyone”. Who would pitch to Russian oil companies. Would they subvert elections abroad on behalf of foreign governments? It occurs to me to ask Wylie this one night. “Yes.” Nato or non-Nato? “Either. I mean they’re mercenaries. They’ll work for pretty much anyone who pays.” It’s an incredible revelation. It also encapsulates all of the problems of outsourcing – at a global scale, with added cyberweapons. And in the middle of it all are the public – our intimate family connections, our “likes”, our crumbs of personal data, all sucked into a swirling black hole that’s expanding and growing and is now owned by a politically motivated billionaire. The Facebook data is out in the wild. And for all Wylie’s efforts, there’s no turning the clock back. Tamsin Shaw , a philosophy professor at New York University, and the author of a recent New York Review of Books article on cyberwar and the Silicon Valley economy, told me that she’d pointed to the possibility of private contractors obtaining cyberweapons that had at least been in part funded by US defence. She calls Wylie’s disclosures “wild” and points out that “the whole Facebook project” has only been allowed to become as vast and powerful as it has because of the US national security establishment. “It’s a form of very deep but soft power that’s been seen as an asset for the US. Russia has been so explicit about this, paying for the ads in roubles and so on. It’s making this point, isn’t it? That Silicon Valley is a US national security asset that they’ve turned on itself.” Or, more simply: blowback. Revealed: 50m Facebook profiles harvested in major data breach How ‘likes’ became a political weapon This article was amended: on 18 March 2018 to clarify the full title of the British Columbia Ministry of Education; and on 24 July 2019 to clarify details about the 2014 negotiations over possible use of the myPersonality materials. The Observer The Observer is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, founded in 1791. It is published by Guardian News & Media and is editorially independent. Explore more on these topics The Cambridge Analytica Files Cambridge Analytica Big data Facebook Cybercrime Internet Donald Trump features More on this story More on this story Cambridge Analytica whistleblower appears before Senate – as it happened 16 May 2018 The six weeks that brought Cambridge Analytica down 3 May 2018 What does Cambridge Analytica closing mean for the Facebook data scandal? 2 May 2018 How to check whether Facebook shared your data with Cambridge Analytica 10 Apr 2018 … … Christopher Wylie: Why I broke the Facebook data story – and what should happen now 7 Apr 2018 Cambridge Analytica has gone. But what has it left in its wake? 6 May 2018 Cambridge Analytica: how did it turn clicks into votes? 6 May 2018 … … Most viewed Most viewed News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle About us Help Complaints & corrections SecureDrop Work for us Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms & conditions Contact us All topics All writers Digital newspaper archive Facebook YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Newsletters Advertise with us Guardian Labs Search jobs Back to top "

"Twitter buys SMS service Cloudhopper after months of secret collaboration | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2010/04/23/twitter-buys-sms-service-cloudhopper-after-months-of-secret-collaboration"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Twitter buys SMS service Cloudhopper after months of secret collaboration Paul Boutin Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Twitter mobile-products-and-partnerships guy Kevin Thau blogged this morning that the company has been working for eight months with Seattle-based Cloudhopper to build a large-scale SMS system for distributing tweets. Now, Twitter has acquired the company, in order “to connect directly to mobile carrier networks in countries all over the planet.” “Twitter processes close to a billion SMS tweets per month and that number is growing around the world from Indonesia to Australia, the UK, the US, and beyond,” Thau wrote. “Twitter was inspired by SMS and we continue to embrace this simple but ubiquitous technology.” Note to startups: This is how you get acquired by a bigger company. Partner with them first. Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010 , VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “ The year of the superphone and who will profit. ” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Early-bird pricing is available until May 15. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Twitter's Jack Dorsey: I hacked a company's email server to get my first job | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2012/09/12/jack-dorsey-hack-first-job"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Twitter’s Jack Dorsey: I hacked a company’s email server to get my first job Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. DETROIT — Jack Dorsey confessed something on stage here at Techonomy Detroit today: He hacked into the world’s largest dispatch company’s email system in order to get a job. “I was in college, and I really wanted to go into the dispatch industry,” Dorsey said. Dorsey had grown up loving cities and loving maps. That translated into a fascination with dispatch software — in fact, some of his open source software for taxi companies is still in use today. But when he wanted to get a job with a dispatch company in New York and checked its website, he found a problem: no contact information. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “So I found a hole in their web server and found their corporate emails. I emailed their chairman, told him there was a security hole, and said here’s how to fix it.” The next week Dorsey was on an airplane. He got the job. Dorsey says he is still fascinated with New York — in fact, he even harbors a not-so-secret dream to be the mayor of New York. However, I’m not sure a similar strategy will get him that particular job. Image credit: John Koetsier VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"After going public, Pluralsight's CEO wants to see more Utah tech companies IPO | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/05/17/after-going-public-pluralsights-ceo-wants-to-see-more-utah-tech-companies-ipo"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages After going public, Pluralsight’s CEO wants to see more Utah tech companies IPO Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. The “Silicon Slopes” of Utah can now claim another homegrown public tech company. Pluralsight , a Farmington, Utah-based subscription ed tech company, began trading on the Nasdaq today after raising more than $310 million in its IPO and selling 20.7 million shares to the public. By the end of the day, the company’s stock price had jumped about 35 percent. Founded in 2004, Pluralsight was bootstrapped until 2013, but it eventually raised more than $190 million in venture capital before going public. The company has created a cloud-based library of courses — on topics like cloud, mobile, and big data — to help IT professionals improve their skills. Pluralsight counts more than 14,000 businesses among its customers, including Adobe, AT&T, and ADP. Among the challenges Pluralsight will face on the public market is returning to a cash-flow positive state after nearly tripling what it spent on sales and marketing between 2016 and 2017. While the increased spending helped Pluralsight increase its revenue by 23 percent year-over-year to $166.8 million in 2017, the company will need to find ways to stem growing losses. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! But Pluralsight’s IPO has been considered a win for the Utah tech scene, as the company is the first in a string of highly valued enterprise software startups in the state that are expected to go public soon. Recode wrote that Domo , last valued at more than $2 billion, held an IPO kickoff meeting last month, while Qualtrics, last valued at $2.5 billion, is expected to IPO in less than 18 months. Just before the markets closed today, Pluralsight CEO and cofounder Aaron Skonnard spoke with VentureBeat about what kind of progress he’s seeing in Utah’s tech community, as well as his hopes for the company over the next year. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. VentureBeat: In the past, I think there’s been more pressure for Utah founders to sell their companies early on, or at least there were fewer entrepreneurs willing to see their company out long enough to go public. Do you think that’s changed at all, and do you think Utah companies are starting to think bigger? Aaron Skonnard: Yeah, I do actually. A company like Pluralsight has such a big mission, and we see this impacting the world at global scale and making a difference in the overall tech landscape. We believe our product can change the face of technology with more diversity and inclusion because we’re providing accessibility [to online classes] to people everywhere. And I think that’s why we believe Pluralsight can be a long-term standalone company in the public market. It will be an iconic brand that can continue to grow and scale in that very way that you’re describing, and I hope other Utah entrepreneurs feel the same way. That in and of itself will be one of the biggest things that changes the future of Utah. We’re already doing a good job of attracting more talent to Utah because of the thriving tech community that exists there right now, but this — more independent, public companies, headquartered in Utah — will make a big difference. VentureBeat: How do you think the level of tech talent has changed in Utah since you first started, and do you think Utah will be able to continue to provide enough [qualified] employees for your company? Skonnard: We’re continuing to import more and more talent outside of Utah, so the trends are moving in the right direction. I think across the state we’re seeing more commitment from government leaders and tech leaders of big companies to further improve the pipelines. We’re currently deeply involved in discussions with a computer science task force within the state to improve our curriculum in K-12 and higher ed, and we’re seeing lots of progress. But I think the biggest factor is going to be having more successful companies in Utah continue to grow, stay in Utah, and that’s going to draw more and more talent to the state. VentureBeat: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing young startups in Utah today? Skonnard: I think there’s still just not as much access to capital as there is in the Bay Area and other places, but that’s also changing. VentureBeat: Historically, Utah has been known for cloud computer, enterprise software companies. How do you think the environment is for other types of companies? Skonnard: I think a couple of characteristics that make Utah unique is one, the tech heritage we have with companies like Novell, WordPerfect, Atari even [Reporter’s note: Atari founder Nolan Bushnell is a Utah native]. I think the tech heritage, combined with a strong sales force and an international demographic, is the thing that really leads to amazing companies in Utah. And that tends to be why enterprise software companies do so well, because you need tech, you need a strong sales force, and you need international DNA to be able to take that company global, and Utah gives you all three of those things. But I think there are a lot of other great examples of other great companies in Utah that are not enterprise software — companies like Ancestry, that’s much more of a consumer company focused on genealogy and DNA. And you’ve got Vivint, another big company that’s focused on home automation, and security — all big, significant tech companies, just not exactly the same as enterprise. VentureBeat: Pluralsight is still losing money — tell me what the path to profitability looks like. Skonnard: We took a loss in 2017, but we had been cashflow positive every year up through 2016. And the reason we decided to spend down in 2017 is to lay a more aggressive enterprise go-to-market strategy. We’re very focused on becoming cash flow positive in the near future, so it’s not going to be an ongoing thing for the company. VentureBeat: You mentioned in your S-1 that you see significant opportunity to expand your reach to other regions. Tell me specifically what regions you are focused on. Skonnard: Europe is the next big frontier for the company — we just announced our HQ in Dublin. We have about 30 people over there, and that office is growing Correction, 8:03 a.m. May 18 — Updated to correct that Pluralsight, not Qualtrics, generated $166.8 million in revenue in 2017, as well as to correct the spelling of Vivint’s name. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Mobile VR's dying gasps mean new life for standalone and tethered VR | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/10/mobile-vrs-dying-gasps-mean-new-life-for-standalone-and-tethered-vr"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Mobile VR’s dying gasps mean new life for standalone and tethered VR Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn One of Nintendo's Labo VR Toy-Cons is a bird controller. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Even if you were expecting this news, the latest research confirms it: “High-performance” VR platforms are increasing in popularity while “mobile VR” is declining. Users, developers, and manufacturers all appear to have given up on Google’s and Samsung’s smartphone-dependent VR accessories, suggesting that we’re finally witnessing the dying last gasps of that category — at least, as we’ve known it. If there wasn’t already enough evidence of mobile VR’s collapse, consider this week’s I/O conference. Having aroused suspicions by saying nothing about its Daydream VR platform late last year, Google again remained silent on the subject during its I/O keynote. It hammered more nails in the coffin by leaving Daydream support out of its latest Pixel 3a phones , and telling reporters that it’s now focusing on VR services instead. Google’s wake-up call to Daydream users and developers follows Samsung’s silent exit from the mobile VR market last year. Though the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10 technically work with 2017 Gear VR sleeves, those and older Gear VR accessories were discounted for rapid removal from most store shelves, and stopped getting mentioned at Samsung events. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! A few months ago, Google’s and Samsung’s departures would have left the mobile VR pool empty, but Nintendo decided to jump into the water last month with cardboard Labo VR kits. Feel free to debate whether they’re “mobile VR” (they use Switch handhelds rather than smartphones) or whether they’re even true VR (the hardware is barely stereoscopic, has no headstrap, and is both low-res and low-frame rate), but if Google Cardboard qualified as mobile VR, so does Labo. Normally, the late entry of any company wouldn’t be enough to keep a dying category alive, but we’re talking about Nintendo — a seasoned portable device maker that doesn’t care about “high performance” hardware, just about fun. Even though the company blew it with Virtual Boy two decades ago, the Switch is hot right now, VR still intrigues millions of people, and Nintendo has incredible distribution. If anyone has a chance to sell tons of cheap VR kits in 2019, it’s Nintendo. That said, it doesn’t take much time actually using Labo VR to confirm that it lacks for compelling long-term experiences , just like its non-VR Labo predecessors. Users who buy the full $80 set will likely spend more time assembling cardboard accessories than actually playing Nintendo’s simple VR minigames , which range from seemingly unfinished demos to lightly interesting fetch quests. Worse yet, VR DLC for Mario Odyssey is over in less than 15 minutes, and a VR update to Zelda: Breath of the Wild update will have you nauseous and/or bored within 10. If Nintendo can’t make Mario or Zelda VR experiences worth playing, best of luck to everyone else. Mediocre experiences like these are the reason mobile VR earned its bad reputation. After going out and spending $80-$150 on a Google, Nintendo, or Samsung VR accessory, the most common user experience appears to be a series of short, not particularly impressive VR sessions that lead the user to shrug and toss the accessory in a drawer. Some users keep the headsets around for the occasional video or game, but without significant investment from platform developers, the devices get trapped in a never-improving cycle: Developers see low usage and cut back on creating content, then users keep exiting due to the lack of new content. Today’s IDC report on typical usage of high-performance VR devices suggests that mobile VR isn’t the only segment of the market suffering from this problem. Even higher-end headset owners tend to spend six or fewer hours per month in VR, with only 12% reporting 16 or more hours of monthly use. But the paucity of quality experiences is most keenly felt in the mobile VR category, perhaps because smartphone users have traditionally been unwilling to pay much for software, and only bought into VR because there were cheap accessories. Though mobile VR appears to be on its deathbed, I’m not ready to declare it dead quite yet. For starters, we haven’t seen Labo VR’s initial sales numbers on the ultra low-end; additionally, something new and not entirely dissimilar is coming soon, though whether you call it high-end “mobile VR” or low-end “tethered VR” depends on your perspective. Above: Dean Takahashi demos a Qualcomm XR virtual reality headset. Qualcomm’s XR Viewer initiative will let Android phone users replace clunky cardboard and fabric smartphone sleeves with mixed reality headsets that resemble glasses and have their own optimized screens, relying on tethered phones mostly for processing. Compatible phones will pack much faster Snapdragon chips than the ones inside last-generation mobile VR devices, and the hardware will support both augmented and virtual reality. These XR Viewers and whatever Apple is working on will unquestionably put pressure on developers of existing “high-performance” VR hardware. As smartphone-dependent VR/AR/XR devices are en route, my belief is that companies such as Sony, Oculus, and HTC need to seriously rethink their pricing strategies, though I’ll be the first to admit that doing so won’t be easy. IDC’s report suggests that hardware bundle and software prices are top issues for potential VR consumers, and anecdotal evidence appears to back that up. PSVR sales shot up during the holidays when Sony debuted new bundles, released new games, and cut prices. Samsung tried to launch a premium Odyssey+ tethered PC headset for $499 , but within months was offering steep (40%) discounts to move units. Soon thereafter, Oculus reportedly nixed its plans for a higher-performance Rift sequel in favor of something much simpler, which it decided to keep at a $400 level. Market confusion is going to be another issue. Consumers now have more VR hardware choices than ever , yet are seeing some established players abandon their platforms. No one wants to invest a lot in a piece of hardware that might not be supported a year or two from now. Above: The PSVR sitting alongside an HTC Vive. My take: VR hardware makers shouldn’t be looking at the remaining market as divided into “low-end” and “high-end,” but rather as “mass market” and “non-mass market.” Years of evidence suggest that VR headsets priced over $299 are not going to be mass market; sales will be measured in the tens or hundreds of thousands, not millions. By contrast, there’s good reason $199 and $299 price points have been considered magical consumer electronics product inflection points for so long. For every company that succeeds in breaking that rule, there are legions that foolishly think they’re immune, and fail trying. We’ll have a pretty good sense of where things are going after we see what happens this year with Facebook. Last year, Oculus Go launched as a standalone VR platform for $200, but accomplished the feat by using a limited mobile chipset and cutting other corners. Consequently, it achieved mass market sales, but can’t be used for much more than playing videos and similarly passive activities. As a result, Oculus Quest seems to exist solely as a way to offer the additional processing and tracking features Go could never have included for $200. Yet at twice the price, Quest is no longer mass-market cheap, and it’s still underpowered. Since nothing VR-related seems to achieve velocity at a $400 price point, it’s unclear whether it will actually sell. Given all the new devices that are hitting the market, it’s going to be an interesting second half of the year for emerging VR platforms. Though mobile VR as we know it is unlikely to be as important going forward as it was in the past, established VR device makers such as Sony and HTC need to start planning now for plenty of change in both the tethered and standalone markets; both could soon be dominated by very different players. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Efforts to curb cyberbullying won’t stop the broader tech backlash | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/10/efforts-to-curb-cyberbullying-wont-stop-the-broader-tech-backlash"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Analysis Efforts to curb cyberbullying won’t stop the broader tech backlash Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn New Instagram bullying features Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. “We are committed to leading the industry in the fight against online bullying, and we are rethinking the whole experience of Instagram to meet that commitment,” proclaimed Instagram head Adam Mosseri in a blog post this week. Technology companies under increasing pressure to thwart online abuse are coming out with a steady stream of new tools and programs designed to make their platforms feel less like cesspools and more, well, “user friendly.” A report published by a trio of U.K. universities back in April found that people under the age of 25 who are subjected to cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm or attempt suicide. “ Self-Harm, Suicidal Behaviours, and Cyberbullying in Children and Young People ” reviews cyberbullying studies from 1996 to 2017 that collectively involved 156,000 individuals from more than 30 countries. A lot changed over that 21-year period, of course. For millions of young people, the only world they’ve ever known is one in which they communicate with family and friends through MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, or other social media platforms. And any parent trying to ban their offspring from using such services faces an uphill battle from the outset. Thus, any real hope of combating online abuse appears to lie with the platforms themselves. On Monday, Instagram — which now claims more than 1 billion users worldwide — announced the latest in a line of measures designed to thwart online bullies. The first of these new features is a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect language and “encourage positive interactions.” In effect, a would-be abuser will receive an alert asking them if they want to reconsider posting a message, as shown in this screenshot. Above: Are you sure you want to post this abuse? In some regards, this feature is a little like Clippy’s “It looks like you’re writing a letter ” guidance from ’90s-era Microsoft Word, repurposed for the abuse-laden Instagram age. But Instagram maintains that in early tests this message led to “some people” retracting their comments. “This intervention gives people a chance to reflect and undo their comment and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification,” Mosseri said. “From early tests of this feature, we have found that it encourages some people to undo their comment and share something less hurtful once they have had a chance to reflect.” This particular feature also has remnants of the Messenger Kids Pledge Facebook announced last year, which is basically a set of “guiding principles” that “encourage the responsible use” of Facebook’s child-focused Messenger app. Above: Messenger Kids pledge As well-meaning as such initiatives may be, they don’t do much to curb genuine cyberbullying and abuse, which is where Instagram’s upcoming shadow banning feature comes into play. One of the issues young people face in terms of dealing with online abuse is that they may interact with the perpetrator as part of a broader social peer group in real life — so proactively blocking, unfollowing, or reporting a bully can have repercussions for them. Nobody wants to be ostracized or seen as a “snitch.” To address this, Instagram will be introducing a new feature it’s calling Restrict, which when activated makes an individual’s comments on their target’s posts visible only to the recipient — though the target can choose to approve specific comments. Moreover, the restricted individual won’t be able to see when their target is “active” on Instagram, or whether they’ve read a direct message. Above: Instagram now lets users shadow-block other users This could prove a genuinely useful feature, because someone who posts mean comments won’t know that nobody else can see them. “We wanted to create a feature that allows people to control their Instagram experience, without notifying someone who may be targeting them,” Mosseri added. Backlash While online abuse is something major tech platforms have tried to battle for years , many have been ramping up their efforts of late. Earlier this year, Alphabet’s Jigsaw launched a Chrome extension that lets you filter out abusive comments from all the major social networks, regardless of whether those attacks are directed at you personally. And Facebook issued a new one-strike policy for livestreamers in the wake of the New Zealand terrorist attack. Besides cyberbullying efforts, YouTube also now offers a “kid friendly” version of the app, though that hasn’t been without its own controversy. And Facebook is also trying to hook kids in from a younger age with its Messenger Kids app. Meanwhile, Google is giving more control to worried parents with initiatives such as Family Link , which lets them control their kids’ devices remotely, and Apple has been turbocharging parental controls on iOS. But the growing focus on cyberbullying and abuse points to a broader backlash against social media and its effect on society. Concerns cover everything from conspiracy videos on YouTube to Facebook posts promoting fake miracle cures. Social networks — by definition — are designed to connect people remotely, but some studies suggest a causal link between social media use and decreased mental wellbeing, including loneliness and depression. A study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology last year found that limiting social media use to 30 minutes per day may lead to a “significant improvement in wellbeing.” Elsewhere, some studies have indicated that there may be a correlation between “likes” received on a Facebook post and a person’s self-esteem, while others have suggested that for teenagers, receiving “likes” on their photos activates the same brain circuits as eating chocolate. Earlier this year, Instagram began experimenting with keeping “like” counts private in an effort to encourage followers to “focus on the photos and videos [shared]” rather than the number of likes received. Twitter is dabbling with similar upgrades through its experimental Twttr app. All sides of the spectrum It’s worth stressing that the tech backlash is coming from all sides of the political and societal spectrum and includes citizens, politicians, governments, and Silicon Valley itself. Donald Trump’s anti-tech proclamations are a regular occurrence, and just this week the White House is hosting a social media summit that “promises to be a carnival of conservative bias victimhood,” as one VentureBeat writer put it. Meanwhile, governments the world over are decrying the role encryption plays in helping criminals. From within large tech companies , workers are pushing their employers to take a more ethical stance with regard to technologies they’ve developed. And many tech luminaries from Silicon Valley and beyond — the very people who helped create these technologies — prohibit their children from using technology and related services. Steve Jobs was known to operate a low-tech household; Tim Cook said last year that he doesn’t want his nephew on social networks; and Bill Gates didn’t allows his kids to have mobile phones until they were teenagers, with his wife Melinda saying that she regretted giving in even at that age. And countless other high-profile tech executives are joining the pushback against smartphones and social media, however ironic that may be. Attempts to clean up social networks, whether through AI-powered anti-abuse tools or parental control mechanisms, are to be applauded. As long as young people are on these platforms, companies should be doing as much as they can to protect them — that is a given. But such efforts are in reality little more than bandaids, and it’s difficult to see how they will counter the swelling tide of anti-tech sentiment. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Bug bounty platform HackerOne raises $40 million to help companies identify vulnerabilities | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/02/08/bug-bounty-platform-hackerone-raises-40-million"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Bug bounty platform HackerOne raises $40 million to help companies identify vulnerabilities Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. HackerOne , a vulnerability identification platform that helps connect security-conscious businesses with bug hunters, has raised $40 million in a Series C round led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Founded out of San Francisco in 2012, HackerOne helps companies identify weaknesses in their online systems through offering cash incentives to security researchers, the idea being that it’s better to have one of the good guys find a bug before the bad guys get a sniff. HackerOne monetizes by charging a 20 percent commission on top of each bounty paid through its platform. Many well-known companies offer “bug bounty” programs through HackerOne — including Twitter, which paid out more than $300,000 in prizes between 2014 and 2016. Other companies using HackerOne include Airbnb, Uber, Yelp, Qualcomm, Nintendo, Slack, Adobe, LinkedIn, GitHub, and Yahoo. And last year, HackerOne was chosen by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to run a bug bounty challenge called Hack the Pentagon , which resulted in more than 1,000 hackers identifying around 140 vulnerabilities. HackerOne subsequently won a $3 million contract from the DoD to Hack the U.S. Army. HackerOne has now raised around $75 million in total, including a $25 million tranche less than two years ago that ushered in a slew of notable angel investors, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, and Zenefits COO David Sacks. The company says it will use its new funds to invest in “technology development, expand market reach, and continue to strengthen the world’s largest and most diverse hacker community,” according to a statement. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Bug bounties are big business — Google has paid out millions of dollars in awards since it first launched a program in 2010, while back in October Facebook revealed it had paid out $5 million in five years. Apple launched its first bug bounty program in August. “Our customers typically receive their first valid security vulnerability report the same day they challenge our diverse community of hackers to examine their code,” explained HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos. “There’s no such thing as perfect software, and bug bounty programs are the most efficient and cost-effective solution for finding security vulnerabilities in live software.” Other notable players in the bug bounty platform space include fellow San Francisco startup Bugcrowd , which has raised around $23 million in funds, to date. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Google has paid security researchers over $15 million for bug bounties, $3.4 million in 2018 alone | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/08/google-has-paid-security-researchers-over-15-million-for-bug-bounties-3-4-million-in-2018-alone"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google has paid security researchers over $15 million for bug bounties, $3.4 million in 2018 alone Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Google today announced it has paid out over $15 million since launching its bug bounty program in November 2010. In the past year alone, the company distributed $3.4 million to 317 different security researchers, slightly up from the $2.9 million it gave to 274 researchers the year before. Google awarded half of last year’s rewards — $1.7 million — to researchers who found and reported vulnerabilities in Android and Chrome. Bug bounty programs are a great complement to existing internal security programs. They help motivate individuals and groups of hackers to not only find flaws but disclose them properly, instead of using them maliciously or selling them to parties that will. Rewarding security researchers with bounties costs peanuts compared to paying for a serious security snafu. Google’s financial rewards for security bugs range from $100 to $200,000, based on the risk level of the discovery. In 2018, however, the biggest single reward was $41,000. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Google also shared three stories about its bug bounty program in 2018: Ezequiel Pereira, a 19-year-old researcher from Uruguay, uncovered a Remote Code Execution (RCE) bug that allowed him to gain remote access to the Google Cloud Platform console. Tomasz Bojarski from Poland discovered a bug related to cross-site scripting (XSS), a type of security bug that can allow an attacker to change the behavior or appearance of a website, steal private data, or perform actions on behalf of the user. Tomasz was last year’s top bug hunter and used his reward money to open a lodge and restaurant. Dzmitry Lukyanenka, a researcher from Minsk, Belarus, was rewarded $1,337 for discovering multiple bugs. After he lost his job, he began bug hunting full-time and became part of Google’s VRP grants program, which provides financial support for prolific bug-hunters even when they’re not finding and reporting a bug. Google’s bug bounty program has been growing since its inception, although the past few years have all seen total payouts around the $3 million mark. Still, Google’s security team continues to expand the program to encompass more products and offer more lucrative rewards, such as up to $100,000 for hacking a Chromebook and up to $200,000 for hacking Android. In November, Google announced the Security and Privacy research awards to recognize academics who have made major contributions to the field with their research projects. Today the company announced the 2018 winners: Alina Oprea , Northeastern University: Cloud Security Matthew Green , Johns Hopkins: Cryptography Thorsten Holz , Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Systems Security Alastair Beresford , Cambridge : Usable security and privacy, mobile security Carmela Troncoso , École Polytechnique Usable de Lausanne: Privacy / Security ML Rick Wash , Michigan State University: Usable Privacy and Security Prateek Saxena , National University of Singapore: ML / Web security On behalf of the academics, Google is making a financial contribution to their respective universities that totals more than $500,000. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Google has helped 300,000 Android developers fix security vulnerabilities in over 1 million apps | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/28/google-has-helped-300000-android-developers-fix-security-vulnerabilities-in-over-1-million-apps"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google has helped 300,000 Android developers fix security vulnerabilities in over 1 million apps Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Android Pie Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Google today offered an update on its Application Security Improvement Program. First launched five years ago, the program has now helped more than 300,000 developers fix more than 1 million apps on Google Play. In 2018 alone, it resulted in over 30,000 developers fixing over 75,000 apps. Google originally created the Application Security Improvement Program to harden Android apps. The goal was simple: help Android developers build apps without known vulnerabilities, thus improving the overall ecosystem. Application Security Improvement Program When an Android app is submitted to the Google Play store, the company scans it for a variety of vulnerabilities. If one is present, Google lets the developer know and helps them fix it. Google doesn’t distribute those apps to Android users until the issues are resolved. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Google compares the program to a health checkup: “Think of it like a routine physical. If there are no problems, the app runs through our normal tests and continues on the process to being published in the Play Store. If there is a problem, however, we provide a diagnosis and next steps to get back to healthy form.” More vulnerabilities By securing Android apps, Google is really beefing up Android security overall. It doesn’t matter if the security vulnerabilities were included accidentally or for nefarious reasons — if Google knows about them, they don’t get through. The program covers a broad range of issues in Android apps, from vulnerabilities in certain versions of popular libraries to unsafe TLS/SSL certificate validation. And Google continues to expand it. In 2018, the company deployed warnings for six additional security vulnerability classes: SQL injection, file-based cross-site scripting, cross-app scripting, leaked third-party credentials, scheme hijacking, and JavaScript interface injection. Given the success, Google plans to keep investing in the program. As new exploits emerge, the company will add them to the program’s warning list. Google has made multiple Android security-related announcements this month alone. The company shared 2018 figures for its bug bounty numbers and Google Play Store app rejections. It also set new Android API level requirements to “improve the security of the app ecosystem.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Google increases rewards for hacking Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Play | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/18/google-increases-rewards-for-hacking-chrome-chrome-os-and-google-play"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google increases rewards for hacking Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Play Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Google, which has already paid security researchers over $15 million since launching its bug bounty program in 2010, today increased bug bounties across the Chrome Vulnerability Reward Program and the Google Play Security Reward Program. Bug bounty programs are a great complement to existing internal security programs. They help motivate individuals and hacker groups to not only find flaws but disclose them properly, instead of using them maliciously or selling them to parties that will. Rewarding security researchers with bounties costs peanuts compared to paying for a serious security snafu. Since 2010, the Chrome Vulnerability Rewards Program has received over 8,500 reports and paid out over $5 million. Those changes have not only helped secure Chrome, but also other Chromium-based browsers. Google is now tripling the maximum baseline reward amount from $5,000 to $15,000, doubling the maximum reward amount for high quality reports from $15,000 to $30,000, and doubling the additional bonus given to bugs found via the Chrome Fuzzer Program from $500 to $1,000. Google has also clarified what it considers a high quality report and updated the bug categories. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! For Chrome OS, Google is increasing the standing reward from $100,000 to $150,000 for exploit chains that can compromise a Chromebook or Chromebox with persistence in guest mode. The company has also added reward categories for security bugs in firmware and lock screen bypasses. Finally, Google has quadrupled Google Play rewards for remote code execution bugs from $5,000 to $20,000. The company has also tripled theft of insecure private data and protected app components from $1,000 to $3,000. Keep in mind this program also has bonus rewards for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities to participating app developers. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Bizarre NBA 2K20 trailer sells the excitement of lootboxes | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/28/nba-2k20-lootboxes-trailer"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Bizarre NBA 2K20 trailer sells the excitement of lootboxes Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. A lot of people really hate lootboxes. This mechanic has players spending money to get a random assortment of digital items similar to packs of baseball cards. But this business model has drawn the ire of players who hate the idea of spending money without knowing what they’re going to get. And yet, someone must like these things because why else would publisher 2K Games make a trailer for its upcoming NBA 2K20 basketball sim that highlights just how much fun it is to get random items from lootboxes in a video game? Earlier this week, 2K published a video that shows off many of the new features in NBA 2K20’s MyTeam. In this mode, players build dream teams by collecting cards. And you collect cards by opening up randomized card packs. This mode type first came to prominence in FIFA Ultimate Team from EA Sports. But this deck-building mode has proliferated throughout the entire sports genre. Today, it’s even in management-style sports sims like Out of the Park Baseball. But while modes like MyTeam are all about getting those rare cards featuring legendary players, publishers like EA have focused on how this mode enables fans to “build their own teams.” 2K Games, however, is focused on something else: How much fun slot machines are! As Twitter user BrianPickett pointed out in a tweet, the new trailer for NBA 2K20 almost seems like someone satirizing the idea of microtransactions. And yet, the publisher is absolutely serious. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! NBA 2K20: Who got their basketball in my lootbox game? This NBA 2K My Team trailer is a grim nightmare of loot box stuff and almost seems like a parody at some points https://t.co/WJ4tsCAXXK — Brian Pickett (@BrianPickett) August 28, 2019 The MyTeam trailer has very little actual gameplay in which someone is playing basketball. Instead, the video jumps from one way to earn digital items to another and another. Here’s each “surprise mechanic” that gets some attention in the video: Opening randomized card packs Jackpot prizes you can earn by spinning a wheel after winning matches in the three-on-three Triple Threat mode. Pachinko machines … really Slot machines … no, really! A Wheel of Fortune -style wheel. Something called “Huge reward cards!” And it’s not just that the game includes all of these ways to get new cards or even that 2K is highlighting them in a trailer. It’s the brazen way that the publisher is presenting the lootbox mechanics as core to the appeal of the franchise that is so surprising. I usually try to resist jumping all over games that have lootboxes. If you don’t like them, don’t play them. But to me, 2K almost seems like it wants to get caught. Like it wants a regulator to step in and stop it from behaving this way. Regulation could be coming. Congress has put lootboxes on its agenda , and the FTC held a workshop about the business model earlier this month. And maybe it’s overdue. Because when the MyTeam trailer ends with one of the actors screaming in ecstasy as he unlocks a top-tier Lebron James card, I found myself looking for the legal disclaimer. If 2K is going to market the experience of unlocking a Lebron James card, shouldn’t it have to say that this result isn’t typical. Or at least tell us the odds or the average amount of money a person would have to spend to get that experience? It doesn’t, though. The advertisement doesn’t have anything like that. And in 2019, that seems weird. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Goodbye, loot boxes! Hello, premium progression passes! | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/22/goodbye-loot-boxes-hello-premium-progression-passes"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Analysis Goodbye, loot boxes! Hello, premium progression passes! Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn PUBG is one game looking to Fortnite to figure out how to adapt its business model. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. If the 2018 Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show last week had a one big trend, it was people standing on stage saying “and no loot boxes!” After Star Wars: Battlefront II and a number of high-profile missteps, loot boxes are fading away. They may stick around in a few games, but developers are looking for what’s next when it comes to generating revenue in games — and it turns out that Epic Games and Fortnite already has the answer. Premium progression passes are coming to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Rocket League. The Battle Pass is a $10 digital punch card that enables Fortnite players to unlock cosmetic items by completing challenges and leveling up the pass. You can do that by playing the game a lot, or you can pay to buy some levels for your Battle Pass if you’re short on time. This is a popular concept that we’ve seen before in Valve’s Dota 2 with its annual Compendium progression pass that it launches in the lead up to The International esports major. The basic idea of the progression pass is that you pay to enjoy a more rewarding meta progression that carries over from one match to another even if those matches are distinct and separate experiences. And it turns out that this is an effective way to generate a serious amount of cash. In April, when Epic launched a new season of its game with a new Battle Pass, it generated approximately $300 million in revenues, according to research firm SuperData. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! If you’re wondering why these progression passes are so effective, you don’t have to search too long. In fact, we’ve seen addictive qualities of leveling up a character in a competitive online game since at least Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007. The idea of working toward a larger goal that reaches beyond the confines of a single match is something that we know keeps players coming back for hours and hours. Valve figured out that people would pay for that progression in a free-to-play game, and Epic decided to turn it into a regular product that would launch multiple times throughout a year. Now, developers PUBG Corp. and Psyonix are looking to adopt their own versions of the Battle Pass, and you may think that this is all about making money — and, of course, that’s a huge part of it. But this is about player retention. Some developers I’ve talked to recently tell me that players tend to choose the games that have progression passes over games that don’t. I’ll admit that I’ve been thinking about buying these passes and getting back into both PUBG and Rocket League all day today, and I haven’t played either for any real stretch of time in weeks. “Outside of Fortnite: Battle Royale, Dota 2 is another game that uses a battle pass monetization strategy and arguably the originator,” SuperData Research analyst Reggie McKim told GamesBeat. “When a battle pass is for sale, total digital revenues for Dota 2 almost triple month-over-month, for every year so far.” Above: Dota 2 revenues spike with the Compendium each year. “By buying a battle pass, consumers have an incentive to become more engaged with the game, as playing more means more levels on your battle pass which means more cosmetics items,” said McKim. “Consumers are also incentivized to level their battle pass up to the highest level possible because the game will place more attractive items towards the higher levels of the battle pass and the higher level items tend to be less common in-game. The level-100 Fortnite battle pass skin can be seen as a badge of honor, for example.” So the progression pass is working for Fortnite. And Psyonix and PUBG Corp. (and a million other developers) have likely considered something like this before. Everyone pays attention to what Valve does with Dota 2, and everyone understands how lucrative the Compendium is for that game. So why didn’t we see the progression pass in PUBG or Rocket League earlier? I think one reason is that some developers believe selling progression to players is even more cynical than loot boxes. Designers have spent the last decade-plus building the perfect digital Skinner boxes. Video game developers have a frightening understanding of how to dole out glitzy rewards to you to keep you coming back to play a game more. But developers have almost always kept the Skinner box one step removed from revenue. For example, you level up a character and get rewards to keep you coming back, but the studios use that engagement to then get you to buy loot boxes. That’s not great. It has its problems. But it’s different than letting people pay for the Skinner box itself. I don’t know if it’s worse or more destructive or anything like that, but I’ll just say this: I won’t be surprised if E3 2023 rolls around and the new trend is: “no more progression passes!” GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft rolls out new Skype for Web with HD video calling, redesigned notifications, and more | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/07/microsoft-rolls-out-new-skype-for-web-with-hd-video-calling-redesigned-notifications-and-more"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft rolls out new Skype for Web with HD video calling, redesigned notifications, and more Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Hate installing Skype? Good news: Microsoft is revamping the messaging app’s browser-based client with a slew of new features. The Seattle company today announced the rollout of a major Skype for Web update, which introduces high-definition video calling, a redesigned notifications panels, a revamped media gallery, and more. It’s available on any PC running Windows 10 and Mac OS X 10.12 or higher with the latest versions of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The bulk of the new capabilities debuted in preview last October, but they’re available widely starting this week. In addition to HD video calling, which supports both private and group calls, the latest Skype for Web features built-in call recording. Meanwhile, the aforementioned notifications panel — accessible by clicking on the bell icon — now collates reactions to messages, mentions in group conversations, replies, and more. Search is much improved — typing in a word or phrase bubbles messages in the current conversation up to the top. And the revamped media gallery shows files, links, and photos from a conversation (regardless of timestamp) in a single view. “We’re always looking for new ways to enhance the experience, improve quality and reliability, and connect people from any device,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post. “Skype has always been about bringing people together. We continue to be driven by the opportunity to connect our global community of hundreds of millions of users, empowering them to feel closer and achieve more together.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Skype for Web — which launched publicly in April 2016 — signaled a move away for the Skype team from edge clients to a cloud-first, distributed apps model, and coincided with a migration from a peer-to-peer networking backend to a centralized architecture. Case in point: Microsoft in November brought Skype to smart speakers and smart displays powered by Amazon’s Alexa assistant. Skype, which has an estimated 1.55 billion users worldwide, competes with Facebook Messenger (which had 1.3 billion monthly active users worldwide as of September 2017) and to an extent Tencent’s WeChat (which has more than a billion users ). The Skype team’s efforts to stand out from the crowd haven’t been universally well-received — its Snapchat-like ephemeral stories feature and third-party extensions for Gfycat, YouTube, and UpWorthy were widely derided on social media. But others have achieved a measure of success, like the integration of Microsoft’s Cortana intelligent assistant and support for real-time captions and subtitles , along with tools such as the BotBuilder , which allows developers to build interactive video chatbots for Skype conversations. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Skype screen sharing comes to Android and iOS | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/04/skype-screen-sharing-comes-to-android-and-ios"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Skype screen sharing comes to Android and iOS Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Skype often with your smartphone? You’ll be pleased to know that starting today, you’ll be able to share your screen if you’re on a supported Android or iOS device, and that Skype’s mobile calling experience has been redesigned with simplicity and ease of use in mind. “Skype has always been the easiest way to share your screen with others, and now we’re taking one of our most popular features on the go,” wrote the Skype team in a blog post. “Whether you have a last-minute meeting on the go, or your dad doesn’t know how to use his phone — screen sharing on Android and iOS lets you get it done from anywhere.” To start sharing your screen (on the latest version of Skype on Android and on iOS devices running iOS 12 and up), start a Skype call, tap the “…” menu, and select the corresponding button. A single tap dismisses the call controls and kicks off a video call, while a double tap removes all controls. A subsequent tap brings the controls back, and in the newly redesigned “…” menu, you’ll also find shortcuts to features like call recording and subtitles. The launch of screen sharing on mobile comes after rollout of a major Skype for Web update, which introduced high-definition video calling, a redesigned notifications panels, a revamped media gallery, and more. Skype for Web — which launched publicly in April 2016 — signaled a move for the Skype team away from edge clients to a cloud-first, distributed apps model, and coincided with a migration from a peer-to-peer networking backend to a centralized architecture. Case in point: Microsoft in November brought Skype to smart speakers and smart displays powered by Amazon’s Alexa assistant. Skype, which has an estimated 1.55 billion users worldwide, competes with Facebook Messenger (which had 1.3 billion monthly active users worldwide as of September 2017) and to an extent Tencent’s WeChat (which has more than a billion users). The Skype team’s efforts to stand out from the crowd haven’t been universally well-received — its Snapchat-like ephemeral stories feature and third-party extensions for Gfycat, YouTube, and UpWorthy were widely derided on social media. But others have achieved a measure of success, like the integration of Microsoft’s Cortana intelligent assistant and support for real-time captions and subtitles, along with tools such as the BotBuilder, which allows developers to build interactive video chatbots for Skype conversations. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"4 ways the AR cloud is connecting digital content with the physical world | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/31/4-ways-the-ar-cloud-is-connecting-digital-content-with-the-physical-world"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest 4 ways the AR cloud is connecting digital content with the physical world Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Magic Leap Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Since Apple’s release of ARKit, it’s become easier than ever to make AR experiences. However, an initial stumbling block for the nascent mobile AR ecosystem was the fact that AR experiences were solitary. That is, it wasn’t possible to make seamless real-time multiplayer AR experiences, and content didn’t persist in the spaces where these AR sessions unfolded. Subsequently, a number of “ AR cloud ” startups have emerged from stealth in 2018, enabling developers to build persistent multiuser AR experiences. The capability for digital content to be “pinned” to real-world objects such as enterprise machinery, retail merchandise, and tourist landmarks means that the physical world has become a 3D interface for peer-to-peer communication. I’ve interviewed four industry experts who have provided insights on how the AR Cloud will be immediately practical for several specific use cases. Seamless enterprise training Above: Hadley Harris True geospatial persistence has been one of the primary roadblocks to AR adoption. Most enterprise applications would be useless if they couldn’t retain state between sessions and content couldn’t be found in the exact same place users left them. Like the mobile ecosystem in general, many of the early winners in AR have been in gaming but there are also significant opportunities in the enterprise. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Hadley Harris is a founding general partner at Eniac Ventures. He expands on this theme: “One area we’ve thought about at Eniac is onboarding and engagement for employees, partners and customers. Imagine detailed content overlaying an office, factory, worksite or residence showing not only where things are but rich content about how to use them.” Harris continues, “For example, a new worker at a factory could utilize detailed instructions, tutorials and safety reminders overlaying the machinery, components and controls through the facility. It’s this precise meshing of the physical world with digital content that will unlock a multitude of opportunities for B2B AR.” Navigate the city more easily When the iPhone first came out, skeptics emerged in full force. This was initially justified by the fact that the mobile web and applications were not natively designed for the new interface of a pocket-sized computer, and that developers had still not leveraged the new and unique capabilities of smartphones. However, once apps like Uber, Instagram, and Snapchat emerged, it became clear that the iPhone was revolutionary. In a similar sense, developers today should ask themselves: what is native to AR? What can ONLY be done in AR? Matt Miesnieks is the CEO of 6D.ai and a partner at Super Ventures. He elaborates on this point: “Being able to communicate digitally in 3D and in context, in situ, with the real world around us – this is a richer type of communication that has never been possible before. The AR Cloud enables users to find specific locations with an accuracy of millimeters, both indoors and outdoors. Suddenly, the world is more easily and intuitively navigable.” Miesnieks continues: “The AR cloud can help us navigate our world beyond just getting from point A to point B, however. It can provide much deeper layers of context about these destinations. For example, have you ever attempted to get a cab on a Saturday night outside of a crowded bar? With current GPS technologies, it’s often difficult to determine which car is the one picking you up. With new AR capabilities, you’ll be able to see a giant animated pin floating above your driver’s car – or be able to stick a floating batman logo above your head for your driver to identify you in a crowd.” The internet of places A stack of technology, including the combination of geo-location and computer vision, will make the real world clickable. Messages, such as pictures of food, and reviews, can be placed in the location they were made for local discovery at a time and a place when relevant. This has been referred to as “the AR Cloud”, but this is arguably an oversimplification. There are many clouds, as many as there are apps, but they will be woven together by a visual browser and a system of filters to ensure we get the data when and where we want it, but it doesn’t otherwise clutter our field of view. Charlie Fink is an AR/VR consultant, columnist, speaker, and the author of “ Charlie Fink’s Metaverse, An AR Enabled Guide to VR & AR. ” He expands on this idea: “the past decade has been dominated by an ‘internet of screens’, in which we stare at little glowing windows on our laptops, tablets, and phones. You might comment on a thread on Reddit or tag yourself in a Facebook picture of you and your friends at a cafe. However, the AR cloud turns the real world into a dynamic interface where you’ll be able to consume and place content into physical places.” Fink continues, “There are myriad possibilities here. Cities will be able to turn local landmarks into 3D wikis annotated with stories about famous people and events that occurred on that spot. Airbnb hosts will be able to drop digital content on top of the coffee maker or first aid kit in their properties to better serve guests – in the specific time and place when they need help. This kind of ‘in-situ’ training will also be valuable in the workplace, as visual and 3D content, accessible on-demand, will help employees intuitively retain information about what has to be done in specific locations on a worksite.” Collaborative shopping experiences Most use cases for AR in retail showcase the single-user experience – like AR apps from Zara, Sephora , and IKEA. However, good experiences are meant to be shared, and multiplayer mobile AR can immediately unlock value for companies and brands. Above: Cathy Hackl demoing the Magic Leap One Cathy Hackl is a Futurist (VR & AR) at You Are Here Labs in Atlanta. She dives deeper into how collaborative shopping experiences can be immediately useful: “In the next few years, we will see multiplayer/collaborative AR impact the at-home shopping experience with v-commerce, as well as the in-store and in-shelf shopping experience in brick and mortar retail. All of which will be shared via social media platforms.” Hackl continues, “In some way, our mobile cameras are portals into a new dimension for shopping and purchasing that is collaborative, social and interactive. For instance, if you are at the store and you see a dress you like, you could launch the store’s app, point your smartphone camera at the dress, and a previously-captured 3D body scan of you starts modeling the dress in front of you. You can then share it with friends and family for immediate feedback on whether you should buy it. You either tap and purchase right at the store or you wait and order it at home, leveraging VR or augmented reality.” Michael Park is the CEO and founder of Spatial Canvas , a platform that lets you build, explore, and share augmented realities. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Scape uses your phone for geo-located AR | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/30/scape-uses-your-phone-for-geo-located-ar"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Scape uses your phone for geo-located AR Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Scape Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. We may all be looking forward to the day HoloLens and Magic Leap are affordable, but smartphone AR still has plenty of room to grow. UK-based Scape technologies is still exploring those possibilities with its new platform. Scape is powering geo-located AR. Think Pokémon Go but, instead of a GPS-based system, Scape uses images captured on your phone’s camera to determine where you are. Using the ScapeKit SDK, developers can create permanent AR stamps in the real world. In the case of Niantic’s popular mobile game, for example, you could specifically place a Pikachu on a street corner and anyone that walks past could try and catch it. But this type of AR’s use stretches far beyond game. That’s why Scape recently put together its first hackathon. Developers were given three days to piece together new apps using ScapeKit. The community favorite spot went to Xrad. The group had an intriguing idea, using webVR to design virtual recreations of real-world environments where they could place preposed AR content. It could be used to virtually visualize and ad campaign, for example. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Inition, meanwhile, won the judge’s award. They had a handy idea for a drone delivery service app where the user could pick and visualize drone landing spots. Both teams took home £500. Othe ideas included a Bandersnatch-style game in which players chose a path through a narrative based on their location in the real world. This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2019 GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Quasi-AR baby steps are preparing us for true AR's digital future | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/23/quasi-ar-baby-steps-are-preparing-us-for-true-ars-digital-future"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Quasi-AR baby steps are preparing us for true AR’s digital future Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn An Adobe and MIT Media Lab project promises advancements in using AR for storytelling, but is this really AR? Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Though I only occasionally write about augmented reality, I sift through plenty of “news” these days that is kinda-sorta AR, but not really. For example, if you believe that a TV show is using “augmented reality” to superimpose weather graphics on the screen next to a live meteorologist, AR has been commercially available for decades. Video compositing and computer graphics have become dramatically more realistic and easier for presenters to use , but I wouldn’t call this augmented reality — at best, it’s augmented video. Similarly, as Instagram , Pokémon Go , and Snapchat overlay cartoony graphics on top of a live video feed from your phone’s front or rear camera, they’re augmenting your personal reality, just not convincingly. I would love to differentiate the concepts of true- and quasi-AR by using some nice terms like “Hard AR” and “Soft AR,” but those phrases are already taken. Seven years ago, Oculus chief scientist Michael Abrash was working for Valve, where he said his team distinguished Hard AR as wearable lenses that perfectly intermixed digital and real content that a group could share, versus Soft AR, which had noticeable imperfections, such as ghostlike rather than solid digital imagery. “Hard AR is tremendously compelling,” he said, “and will someday be the end state and apex of AR. But it’s not going to happen any time soon.” Abrash was correct: Many years later, Facebook’s Oculus unit is still talking about developing the underlying technologies for a hard AR solution, rather than actually manufacturing AR devices. The dream, Facebook said this week , is a pair of “all-day wearable AR glasses that are spatially aware.” Before that happens, it noted, Oculus Insight spatial AI will have to shrink to 2% of its current energy requirements, and benefit from related hardware manufacturing innovations. In other words, don’t expect to see finished consumer AR glasses at Oculus Connect 6 next month. So engineers at major technology companies know what AR will eventually look like, and keep taking small steps that move closer towards or approximate the technology along the way. On the hardware side, HoloLens and Magic Leap One fall short largely because they’re ghostly and have poor fields of augmented view. Apple, Google, and their app makers sidestepped the lack of AR headset technology by using smartphone screens to show ARKit and ARCore content. Until shareable, persistent AR assets become more common within the real world, the results will mostly be quasi-AR apps that put cartoony animal features on your face , stars behind your head, and text banners on backgrounds. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Above: Facebook’s Spark AR Studio. This isn’t to say that these baby steps are bad. Marketers are increasingly finding this quasi-AR useful in convincing people that couches will look right in their living rooms or that computers will fit on their office desks. They’re also letting people try on shoes and shirts without actually soiling real clothing and giving people the chance to see what they’d look like with different features. A particularly ambitious app will let you tour a whole house using AR , assuming you have an empty lot to walk around with your phone or tablet while doing it. None of these things is Hard AR in the form engineers and science fiction visionaries were writing about years ago. Even when using HoloLens and Magic Leap headsets, there’s little sense that the hardware is bringing plausible digital content to life for viewers. The graphics aren’t photorealistic, the in-glasses viewing windows are small, and the positional tracking struggles to keep up with live movements. There’s something there — it’s just not anything regular consumers would buy. Due to their limited availability and high price tags, most people will never even try on HoloLens or Magic Leap devices as they exist today. That’s unfortunate for only one reason: In the foreseeable future, seeing AR through a headset is going to be dramatically more immersive and compelling than seeing it on a screen. VR users know the distinction between Sony’s Astro Bot on a TV versus stereoscopic goggles feels like the difference between watching from afar and actually being inside the game’s environment. Once you see realistic AR objects overlapping reality in a pair of glasses, there’s a good chance you’ll want to keep seeing them. Hence, the baby steps. As people become accustomed to using AR software on the screens they carry around every day, they’ll have a better chance of becoming dedicated AR hardware users whenever the devices are ready. Until that day comes, I’m going to continue hunting for a better term than “quasi-AR” to describe the augmented video apps that are becoming increasingly available, and arguably increasingly important, with every passing month. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Huawei unveils Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro with in-screen fingerprint sensor and built-in wireless charging pad | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/16/huawei-unveils-mate-20-and-mate-20-pro-with-in-screen-fingerprint-sensor-and-built-in-wireless-charging-pad"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Huawei unveils Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro with in-screen fingerprint sensor and built-in wireless charging pad Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Huawei Mate 20 Pro Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. As expected, Huawei added two new flagship phones to its product lineup today. At a packed event in London, billed as “Welcome to a higher intelligence,” the Chinese smartphone giant unveiled the Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro devices, almost a year to the day after it brought the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro to market. Separately, the company also revealed the new Huawei Watch GT smartwatch and the Huawei Band Pro 3 wristband. Above: Huawei Mate 20 / Pro launch event in London As with most new product launches these days, many — if not most — of the products’ specifications leaked well in advance of the event. However, we can now confirm the full ins and outs of these devices, including how they differ from each other, when you can expect to get your hands on them, and how much you can expect to pay. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Huawei Mate 20 and the Huawei Mate 20 Pro Though Huawei unveiled two flagships today, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is likely to be pushed as the more primary “flagship,” due to its additional premium features. Above: Huawei Mate 20 Pro Nonetheless, here’s a quick peek at what you can expect from each device. First, let’s clear the elephant out of the room: Unlike their Mate-branded predecessor, the Huawei Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro do not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, which will be to the chagrin of many. But that really is no surprise, as it is starting to feel like most flagships these days have jumped on the no-headphone-jack bandwagon — including Huawei with its P20-range flagships earlier this year. It is what it is; so everyone will have to just deal with it in their own way. Getting down to brass tacks, the Mate 20 is actually slightly larger than the Mate 20 Pro, sporting a 6.53-inch display compared to the 6.39-inch on the Pro. The overall size of each device is 158.2 x 77.2 x 8.3mm (Mate 20) and 157.8 x 72.3 x 8.6mm (Mate 20 Pro), while the aspect ratios are 18.7:9 and 19.5:9, respectively. Side by side, however, the most obvious distinction is the notch — both devices have one, but the Huawei Mate 20 has a little teardrop-style notch compared to the much wider notch on the Mate 20 Pro. Above: Huawe Mate 20 (left) and Huawei Mate 20 Pro (right) Flip the phones around and you’ll see that both devices have a Leica-enabled triple-lens camera system, one more than the Mate 10 offers. On the Mate 20 Pro, the three lenses are bundled into a square format alongside the flash and bring a 40-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 20-megapixel ultra wide angle lens, and 8-megapixel telephoto lens. The Mate 20 has a similar layout, though it only offers 16-megapixels and 12-megapixels for the first two lenses. Both phones come with a 24-megapixel front-shooter. Above: Huawei Mate 20 (left) and Mate 20 Pro (right): From behind Though the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro also have three lenses, one of those is a monochrome lens, which Huawei has elected to omit from the Mate 20 phones. Fingerprints and wireless charging The rear-end view hints at another major differentiator between the two phones. You’ll notice that the Huawei Mate 20 has a little round fingerprint sensor beneath the lenses, while the Mate 20 Pro doesn’t — that’s because Huawei has shoehorned the Mate 20 Pro’s fingerprint sensor into the actual screen itself. This is not by any means a first — Chinese smartphone company Vivo launched a device with this technology embedded earlier this year, Xiaomi has followed sui t, and Huawei introduced the super-premium Porsche Mate RS device with an in-screen fingerprint reader. But it is still something of a novelty feature, one that will likely show up in future devices from the likes of Apple and Samsung. Another key difference between these devices isn’t so apparent visually, but a wireless charging pad is embedded into the rear of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. In meaningful terms, this allows you to charge any device that is enabled for wireless charging, such as your buddy’s phone. It is also significant for your wireless earphones — given that the Huawei Mate 20 Pro does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, the company anticipates that many people will use Bluetooth earphones which, of course, require charging. With a compatible pair of earphones, you will be able to charge them on the go simply by placing them on the rear of the device. This is potentially a game-changer for those who forget to fully charge their earphones before leaving the house. Other key specs We can tell you that both Huawei Mate 20 devices ship with dual-SIM capabilities and offer various configurations of memory and storage. The Mate 20 is available in 4GB and 6GB RAM versions, while the Mate 20 Pro is only available with 6GB of RAM. Both devices are only available with 128GB of built-in storage, however this is expandable to 256GB via a new Nano memory card slot, which doubles as the secondary SIM card slot. Additionally, the Mate 20 comes with a 4,000mAh battery, while the Mate 20 Pro offers a slightly larger 4,200mAh battery. As expected, we can also confirm that both devices ship with the Kirin 980 chipset , the world’s first 7nm (nanometer) chip, promising a 20 percent speed bump and 40 percent better power efficiency compared to the Kirin 970 launched last year, as well as improved performance compared to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845. Here’s a full list of all the main specifications for each device. Above: Huawei Mate 20 vs Huawei Mate 20 Pro: Specifications Camera software As with just about every flagship phone these days, the camera plays a pivotal part in Huawei’s pitch for its latest duo of devices. Aside from the ultra-wide-angle feature, which should allow users to capture much more of the scenery around them, there are two particularly notable effects embedded into the video camera software. “Background blur” essentially brings the blurred background “bokeh” effect that you’ll no doubt be familiar with from the photography realm into video. This means that when you follow a person around a room with the camera, the background is blurred while the subject remains sharply in focus. But arguably funkier than that is the effect known as “AI color” within the camera app that Huawei is actually marketing as “AI Cinema” mode. Above: Huawei Mate P20 Pro: Video effects In a nutshell, the subject within a video appears in color on your screen, while everything around them is displayed in black and white. It’s quite a smart effect and mimics the kind of color processing that was used in the movie Sin City , representing a notable advance for smartphone camera technology and the AI-powered computer vision technology it leans on. Above: The “AI Color” video effect on the new Huawei Mate 20 Pro You can read more about this in our piece that looks specifically at the AI Cinema mode. Pricing and availability Huawei hasn’t provided full market and pricing details at the time of writing, but we do know the euro pricing, which gives us some indication of the pricing elsewhere. The Huawei Mate 20 (4GB RAM) will cost €799, while the Mate 20 (6GB RAM) will set you back €849. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro will cost €1049. Both devices are available to buy in some markets from today, and we’ll update here when we hear back about U.S. pricing and market availability. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Huawei sues the U.S. government for banning its products | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/06/huawei-sues-the-u-s-government-for-banning-its-products"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Huawei sues the U.S. government for banning its products Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. ( Reuters ) — Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies on Thursday confirmed it is suing the U.S. government over a section of a defense bill passed into law last year that restricted its business in the United States. Huawei said it had filed a complaint in a federal court in Texas challenging the constitutionality of Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a section signed into law by the U.S. president in August that banned federal agencies and their contractors from procuring its equipment and services. “The U.S. Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort,” Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping said in a statement. “This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming U.S. consumers. We look forward to the court’s verdict, and trust that it will benefit both Huawei and the American people.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! While Huawei had very little market share in the U.S. telecoms market before the bill, it is the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment and is seeking to be at the forefront of a global roll-out of fifth generation (5G) mobile networks and services. “Lifting the NDAA ban will give the U.S. Government the flexibility it needs to work with Huawei and solve real security issues,” Guo said. In its lawsuit, Huawei said its “equipment and services are subject to advanced security procedures, and no backdoors, implants, or other intentional security vulnerabilities have been documented in any of the more than 170 countries in the world where Huawei equipment and services are used.” The privately owned firm has embarked on a public relations and legal offensive as Washington lobbies allies to abandon Huawei when building 5G mobile networks, centering on a 2017 Chinese law requiring companies cooperate with national intelligence work. Founder and Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei has said Huawei, the world’s biggest telecoms gear maker, has never and will never share data with China’s government. No Proof The NDDA bans the U.S. government from doing business with Huawei or compatriot peer ZTE or from doing business with any company that has equipment from the two firms as a “substantial or essential component” of their system. In its lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, Huawei argues that the section of the law is illegal because it could sharply limit the company’s ability to do business in the United States despite no proof of wrongdoing. Separately, the lawsuit also alleges that Huawei has been denied due process and that Congress, by stripping Huawei of U.S. commercial opportunities, has violated the “separation of powers” portion of the constitution by doing the work of the courts. Uphill Battle Some legal experts, however, said Huawei’s lawsuit is likely to be dismissed because U.S. courts are reluctant to second-guess national security determinations by other branches of government. The lawsuit “will be an uphill battle because Congress has broad authority to protect us from perceived national security threats,” said Franklin Turner, a government contracts lawyer at McCarter & English. In November 2018, a federal appeals court rejected a similar lawsuit filed by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, which was challenging a ban on the use of the company’s software in U.S. government networks. The Texas court hearing Huawei’s case will not be bound by that decision, but will likely adopt its reasoning because of the similarities in the two disputes, said Steven Schwinn, a professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. “I don’t see how (Huawei) can really escape that result,” said Schwinn. If a judge decides Huawei has a plausible claim the case will proceed to the discovery phase, in which internal documents are shared and U.S. government officials could be forced to provide testimony and lay out their national security concerns. Retribution The legal action and public relations outreach compare with a more restrained response in December emphasizing “trust in justice” when its chief financial officer, Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Vancouver at U.S. request. The United States has accused Meng – Ren’s daughter – of bank and wire fraud related to breaches of trade sanctions against Iran. Meng appeared in court on Wednesday during which her lawyer expressed concern that the allegations have a political character, raising U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on the case. Separately, Meng, who is fighting extradition, is suing Canada’s government for procedural wrongs in her arrest. The case had strained relations with China, which this week accused two arrested Canadians of stealing state secrets in a move widely seen as retribution for Meng’s arrest. While Meng is under house arrest in Vancouver, it is unclear where the two Canadians are being detained in China. Sources previously told Reuters that at least one of the Canadians did not have access to legal representation. Change of Tune Ren met international media for the first time in several years in mid-January, calling U.S. President Donald Trump “great” and refraining from commenting directly on Meng’s case. Shifting tone, Ren in mid-February said Meng’s arrest was politically motivated and “not acceptable”. Long before Trump initiated a trade war with China, Huawei’s activities were under scrutiny by U.S. authorities, according to interviews with 10 people familiar with the Huawei probes and documents related to the investigations seen by Reuters. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Trump’s glib approach to Huawei invites nasty unintended consequences | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/24/trumps-glib-approach-to-huawei-invites-nasty-unintended-consequences"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Trump’s glib approach to Huawei invites nasty unintended consequences Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the Infrastructure Initiative in Richfield, Ohio, U.S., March 29, 2018. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. The U.S. government has spent the last year and a half making the case that Huawei is an international security threat — a telecommunications hardware company that could help China’s government surveil communications and seize control of 5G-networked assets. But President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that this “very dangerous” company may not be such a threat after all as the U.S. might be willing to look the other way if China agrees to a trade deal. Does this sound like pay-to-play politics? Of course. After the last two years, is anyone even slightly surprised that Trump would shrug off international security concerns to settle an economic dispute? Of course not. Regardless of how this situation plays out, Trump’s glib attitude toward trade relations with Huawei is inviting highly unpleasant and long-lingering consequences. The most obvious: Foreign rivals now can plausibly argue that the U.S. targets individual companies to force political outcomes, which is effectively an economic form of hostage-taking. That alone will become a huge land mine for U.S. diplomats going forward — a persistent blemish on the nation’s reputation for fair dealing and commitment to impartial justice, though admittedly just one of many such marks made over the last two years. A less obvious consequence is that a leading Chinese company will be pushed to offer its own rivals to Android, Arm processors, and other technologies it can no longer reliably source. This consequence is now tangible — Huawei has explicitly said it’s being forced — against its preference — to develop alternatives. The less obvious ramifications will arrive as Chinese-made chips, operating systems, and other core components impact global trade, technology, and security over time. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! As it stands today, Huawei’s name appears on most of its devices and some of their components, but key internal technologies are foreign-made — a smartphone’s “Huawei” CPU uses Arm-designed cores, the operating system and most apps come from Google , and the screen glass might come from Corning. Even the company’s new 5G modems are manufactured elsewhere, at Taiwanese chip fabricator TSMC. There are billions of reasons to prefer sourcing all these parts from the companies that originally developed them — the components are expensive to design and tricky to fabricate. But if that’s not an option, Huawei is the rare company with the financial wherewithal to make its own alternatives. And China’s government certainly would back it up. It’s not as if there aren’t already third-rate chips, operating systems, or glass options available for Huawei to buy in China. If the company was willing to make decidedly less impressive products, it could switch to these components in a heartbeat, alienating many users but probably lowering its prices even further. But that’s not going to happen. Assuming the U.S. ban doesn’t get resolved out of nowhere ZTE-style , Huawei will eventually start making the parts it needs, and possibly even offer them to other companies. For the U.S., the big risk is that fully Chinese-made options go from being third-tier to second- or first-tier once they’re properly funded, either by massive purchases from the world’s largest smartphone maker or by government subsidies. Moreover, just as the U.S. government is apparently willing to ignore security concerns for the right price, China tends to look the other way on international intellectual property violations when it benefits domestic companies. This means U.S. innovations could be folded into ethically questionable Chinese knockoffs without acknowledgement or compensation. In other words, if the U.S. is concerned about security and trade imbalances, those situations could easily go from bad to worse. Once Chinese companies can purchase domestic alternatives, they won’t buy U.S. components and software and will instead start competing with U.S. vendors at lower prices, offering “insecure” products all over the world. That’s effectively what happened with Huawei’s now massive international 4G and 5G base station business , so there’s every reason to think it could happen again across other telecom devices. Between the ban on Huawei and the trade war with China, the U.S. now has to resolve a thorny situation without making an even bigger mess of the country’s key trading and technology relationships. There may be no great way to repair everything that’s already been broken, but explicitly delinking Huawei’s fate from the broader Chinese trade war would be the right place to start. It might have seemed like a potent bargaining chip in a bid to fix everything at once, but even mentioning it further undermines the U.S’ moral authority and gives China’s government yet another reason to make things worse for U.S. companies and citizens in the future. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Huawei tests a smartphone with its Hongmeng OS, possibly for sale this year | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/04/huawei-tests-a-smartphone-with-its-hongmeng-os-possibly-for-sale-this-year"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Huawei tests a smartphone with its Hongmeng OS, possibly for sale this year Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Huawei signage is pictured at their store at Vina del Mar, Chile, July 14, 2019. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. ( Reuters ) — Huawei is testing a smartphone equipped with Hongmeng, the company’s self-developed operating system, which could potentially go on sale by the end of this year, Chinese state-media outlet Global Times reported. The release of a Hongmeng-powered smartphone would mark a major step for China’s Huawei, the world’s second-biggest maker of smartphones , as U.S. government actions threaten its access to Google’s Android operating system. The device will be priced at around 2,000 yuan ($288), the Global Times said on Sunday, citing unnamed sources. That will place the device toward the low-end segment of the smartphone market. Huawei did not immediately comment on the report when contacted by Reuters on Monday. Huawei executives have previously described Hongmeng as an operating system designed for internet-of-things products. Last month the company said the first major devices powered by Hongmeng would be its upcoming line of Honor-brand smart TVs. Company leaders have publicly downplayed the possibility that the software could power a smartphone. Last week, at an event announcing the company’s earnings for the first half of 2019, Huawei chairman Liang Hua said the company preferred to use Google’s Android operating system for its mobile devices and referred to Hongmeng as part of Huawei’s “long-term strategy”. Huawei has been at the center of geopolitical tension between the United States and China since May, when President Donald Trump placed the company on an “entity list” that effectively barred American suppliers from selling to the company. Trump has signaled that the sanctions will be relaxed, although further details remain scarce. If the policies remain enforced, Huawei could potentially lose access to regular updates to Android. Huawei’s revenue in the first half of 2019 grew 23%, in part due to strong domestic demand for its mobile phones. While smartphone sales tanked overseas, its shipments in China increased 31% year-on-year in the June quarter , according to market research firm Canalys. Analysts attribute the robust performance at home in part due to the quality of its devices, which have long led China’s high-end Android phone market, and in part due to patriotism among consumers. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Huawei's cross-platform HarmonyOS will ship in China in 2019, globally in 2020 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/09/huaweis-cross-platform-harmonyos-will-ship-in-china-in-2019-globally-in-2020"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Huawei’s cross-platform HarmonyOS will ship in China in 2019, globally in 2020 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Huawei unveils HarmonyOS at its developer conference in China. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. In response to the U.S. government’s decision to effectively ban Huawei equipment from stateside cellular networks, the Beijing-based company asserted in May that it was readying an in-house operating system (OS) for launch on devices in China by year-end 2019. Today at its developer conference in Dongguan, China, Huawei formally announced the OS — HongmengOS, or HarmonyOS in English — and revealed that it will ship not only on future mobile devices, but on in-vehicle systems, smart speakers, and wearables, too. Huawei expects the first version of HarmonyOS — HarmonyOS 1.0 — to arrive with unnamed smart screen products due out in the coming months. (Reuters reported this week that Huawei-owned Honor would bring HarmonyOS to a smart TV and potentially a smartphone.) China will be the initial focus ahead of an expansion to other markets in mid-2020, and Huawei says it plans to “optimize” and “gradually adopt” HarmonyOS across a range of devices over the next three years. “We’re entering a day and age where people expect a holistic intelligent experience across all devices and scenarios. To support this, we felt it was important to have an operating system with improved cross-platform capabilities. We needed an OS that supports all scenarios, that can be used across a broad range of devices and platforms, and that can meet consumer demand for low latency and strong security,” said CEO Richard Yu onstage. “These were our goals with HarmonyOS. HarmonyOS is completely different from Android and iOS.” Hauwei describes HarmonyOS as a “lightweight” and “compact” operating system that’s microkernel-based, meaning the underpinning kernel — which acts as an interpreter between software and a central processing unit — contains the near-minimum amount of required functions and features. To this end, it provides only basic services, like thread scheduling, and has roughly one-thousandth the amount of code contained within the Linux kernel, enabling it to achieve up to 5 times the efficiency of existing systems, with respect to inter-process communication. HarmonyOS’ microkernel implements a number of system services in user mode (i.e., when HarmonyOS is running a user application) outside of the kernel. On the security front, Huawei says it implements formal verification methods and “mathematical approach[es]” in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to validate the integrity of software paths. Fortunately, performance doesn’t suffer for it. HarmonyOS features a distributed architecture and virtual bus technology that unifies communications, data management, task scheduling, and virtual peripherals, ostensibly eliminating the need for developers to deal with the complexities of distributed apps. Moreover, thanks to what Huawei calls a Deterministic Latency Engine, which sets task execution priorities and time limits for scheduling in advance, HarmonyOS can reduce app latency by up to 25.7%. So what about the third-party developer experience? Well, HarmonyOS boasts a multi-device integrated development environment, a multi-language compilation pipeline, and a distributed architecture kit that can automatically adapt to different screen form factors and layouts. And it supports both drag-and-drop control and preview-oriented visual programming, enabling developers to code apps once and deploy them across multiple devices. Yu said HarmonyOS will be open-sourced in the near future, adding that Huawei intends to establish an open source foundation and an open source community to support its development. “HarmonyOS is a microkernel-based distributed OS that delivers a smooth experience across all scenarios. It has trustworthy and secure architecture, and it supports seamless collaboration across devices,” said Richard Yu. “We believe HarmonyOS will revitalize the industry and enrich the ecosystem. Our goal is to bring people a truly engaging and diverse experience. We want to invite developers from around the world to join us as we build out this new ecosystem. Together, we will deliver an intelligent experience for consumers in all scenarios.” Huawei’s announcement comes as the U.S. contemplates easing trade restrictions on the company and its subsidiaries as soon as this year. Escalating tensions with China threaten to put the kibosh on those plans in the near term — Bloomberg reported yesterday that the White House will delay a decision about granting licenses that would allow U.S. companies (including Google and Intel) to restart business with Huawei, in light of China’s decision to halt purchases of U.S. farming goods. Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in June that the U.S. ban would cost Huawei in the neighborhood of $30 billion in lost revenue. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Gartner: Samsung and Huawei sold one-third of phones in Q2 2019 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/27/gartner-samsung-sold-the-most-phones-globally-in-q2-2019"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Gartner: Samsung and Huawei sold one-third of phones in Q2 2019 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Global smartphone sales remain on a slow but steady decline, according to analysts at Gartner. The U.K. firm today published a report showing that they dipped 1.7% in Q2 2019, totaling 368 million units (down from 374 million units the same quarter a year ago). Among the top five vendors, Huawei and Samsung experienced the steepest uptick at 16.5% and 3.8%, respectively, leading them to account for more than a third of total smartphone sales worldwide. Gartner notes that Huawei’s inclusion on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List in mid-May, which effectively banned its devices from U.S. communications networks, sharply affected the Beijing company’s smartphone sales in Q2 2019, although they recovered slightly after those restrictions were eased in August. But in Greater China, “strong promotion” and “brand positioning” reportedly helped Huawei sell 31% more smartphones in the region compared with Q1 2019, a record. As for Samsung, it managed to get 75 million handsets out the door to bolster its global Q2 2019 market share to 20.4% (from 19.3% in Q2 2018), in line with shipping estimates. Gartner attributes the gains to demand for the tech giant’s Galaxy A series devices and revamped entry-level and mid-range lineups, noting that sales for the flagship Galaxy S10 weakened during the quarter. On the other hand, Apple saw sales of its iPhone lineup slip by 13.8% year-over-year to 38 million units for 10.5% of the market (compared with 11.9% in Q2 2018), continuing a slowdown spurred by a shift in business priorities from hardware to services. That jibes with findings from Canalys released in July, which showed that Apple’s Q2 sales in China alone fell 14% to 5.7 million units as Huawei’s sales rose 31% to 37.3 million units. The report’s authors credited the dynamic to both Chinese consumers’ patriotism and the Hauwei’s “advanced technology.” On the subject of Huawei, the tech giant saw its market share reach 15.8% this quarter (up from 13.3% in Q2 2018), with Xiaomi bringing up the rear with a 9% share (up from 8.8%). Oppo nabbed the fifth-place finish with a 7.6% slice (unchanged from the quarter prior), while vendors occupying the amalgamated “other” category saw their combined market share fall from 39% in Q2 2018 to 36.7% in Q2 2019. China and Brazil The Chinese and Brazilian smartphone markets were slightly rosier than the rest of the world, as alluded to earlier. China held the top spot with 101 million sales in Q2 2019 (up 0.5% from Q2 2018), motivated at least in part by incoming 5G phone models from a range of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Sales in Brazil hit 10.8 million, and in fact, Brazil was the only other country in the top five to exhibit growth (1.3% year-over-year). India notched total smartphone sales of around 35.7 million in Q2 2019, giving it a market share of 9.7% in Q2 2019. But that represented a 2.3% year-over-year decline, perhaps the result of slowing consumer upgrades from feature phones to smartphones. Gartner anticipates that globally, handset sales will remain weak for the rest of the year, with total sales to end users hitting 1.5 billion units in 2019. “Demand for high-end smartphones has slowed at a [greater] rate,” said Gartner senior research director Anshul Gupta. “To try to boost smartphone replacements, we’ve seen manufacturers bringing premium features such as multi-lens front/back cameras, bezel-less displays, and large batteries from their flagship smartphones into lower-priced models.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Doom, Quake guru John Carmack officially leaves id Software for Oculus Rift maker | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2013/11/22/programming-guru-john-carmack-officially-leaves-id-software-for-oculus-vr"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Doom, Quake guru John Carmack officially leaves id Software for Oculus Rift maker Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn John Carmack wearing the Oculus Rift headset Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. John Carmack, the programming genius who cofounded id Software and created titles like Doom and Quake, has left the company. He has taken a full-time job at Oculus VR as its chief technology officer. Oculus makes the Rift virtual-reality 3D headset, a Kickstarter success story that has reignited the interest in VR and 3D in gaming. Carmack raised eyebrows earlier when he announced he was joining Oculus, but he left his employment status at id unclear. Bethesda Softworks, which owns id, said that Carmack had not resigned. But now that has changed. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! “John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio. John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects,” said Tim Willits, the studio director at id Software. “We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.” Brendan Iribe, the chief executive of Oculus VR, recently told us that Carmack was focused on making a mobile version of the Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles. In a tweet , Carmack said, “I wanted to remain a technical adviser for Id, but it just didn’t work out. Probably for the best, as the divided focus was challenging.” Carmack started making games in the late 1980s but id Software was formally created in 1991. The company became famous for pioneering the first-person shooter genre with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. It was acquired by Bethesda in 2009, and it has been working on the latest installment of the Doom series. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Magic Leap One testers knock fit and field of view, say 'ML2' is coming | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/08/magic-leap-one-testers-knock-fit-and-field-of-view-say-ml2-is-coming"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Magic Leap One testers knock fit and field of view, say ‘ML2’ is coming Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. The initial verdicts are in regarding Magic Leap’s $2,295 augmented reality platform Magic Leap One : Expect a step rather than a leap forward from Microsoft’s HoloLens, thanks largely to fidgety first-generation hardware. While developers in six U.S. cities can order Magic Leap One today, testers are hinting that regular consumers may want to hold off until “ML2” or “ML3,” both of which are already being shown off to investors. According to hands-on reports from several publications, Magic Leap One’s single biggest issue is its narrow field of view, a problem foreshadowed last week. CNBC described the digital content as “sort of like looking through a window within your field of view,” and said that it “can be hard to see objects that are really close to you or too big.” Similarly, Cnet called the small viewing area “a serious drawback,” saying that a user may require sound cues to “track where the augmented things are hiding, and where to turn.” Magic Leap told CNBC that subsequent hardware versions will “start to fix this problem.” Another major issue for Magic Leap One is that the device is extremely dependent on a snug fit, and doesn’t work properly unless it’s custom-sized to each user. Wired noted that the handheld controller became non-responsive during testing due to a fit problem with the nose bridge, and realized that “these goggles will need to fit perfectly to work.” People with glasses will either need to wear contact lenses or have custom prescription lenses made for the headset, but the Cnet tester’s prescription was apparently too strong for that option, making contact lenses a necessity. Fit issues are the reason, Cnet says, that Magic Leap is requiring developers to have a white glove delivery and personal fitting service provided by former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson’s company Enjoy. “They will come to your home, office or someplace else you choose in a few hours or few days, depending on the city,” Cnet says, and personalize the headset. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! This tweaking is necessary because of Magic Leap’s proprietary light field displays — lens-optimized screens designed to more closely mimic reality — which the company plans to self-manufacture in Florida. The manufacturing process apparently still isn’t ready for mass production, however, so a contract manufacturer is making the parts for the Magic Leap One. Each of the testers referred to Magic Leap One’s visuals as ghostly, though not in an entirely negative way. “Images floated and displayed well,” said Cnet, “creating a sense of impressive depth, but their sense of reality always bordered on the video game side, like a Disney cartoon.” Magic Leap is aware of the current system’s limits: CEO Rony Abovitz said that “ML1 gives you, I’d say, the beginning of real usability.” Since today’s announcement was focused on Magic Leap One’s availability, it’s interesting that the company is openly discussing future Magic Leap products, and noting that hundreds of people are actively working on them. “The company is already showing investors and partners prototypes of its smaller (and hopefully less expensive) Magic Leap Two and Magic Leap Three,” said Cnet, “but won’t say when they’ll be released.” These prototypes are said to be “under a cloth” in an “Apple Store-like product display room.” A red-colored Magic Leap “special edition” variant is also in the works. It’s clear from the hands-ons that Magic Leap will continue to face significant development, marketing, and pricing challenges. Eight years have passed since the company’s founding, and it’s just beginning to ship hardware that testers are saying “isn’t quite there yet,” at a price point 10 times higher than average consumers would pay for the technology. The goal now is apparently to convince creative types to create content that will convince people to buy devices. Wired says that Magic Leap is now trying to “remake itself as an ordinary company” and get past the hype it previously created. Former marketing chief Brian Wallace told Wired that he knew that what the company “was directing us to say publicly was not going to converge with the realities of the product when it launched,” and left in 2016. Just yesterday, Magic Leap confirmed that the head of its “go to market” strategy Jeff Gattis just left the company as well. Even so, Magic Leap has billions of dollars in investments from major tech companies, and says that its earliest hardware shipments before today went out to game and entertainment developers (40 percent), corporate communications developers, and health care developers. The question now is whether there will actually be customers willing to buy the platform required to use Magic Leap-specific games and apps. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Magic Leap One Creator Edition hands-on -- A sneak peek at augmented reality's future | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/19/magic-leap-one-creator-edition-hands-on"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Preview Magic Leap One Creator Edition hands-on — A sneak peek at augmented reality’s future Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Dean Takahashi shows off the Magic Leap One Creator Edition augmented reality goggles. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. I got a sneak peek at the Magic Leap One Creator Edition , thanks to a demo of the new mixed reality version of Angry Birds. Magic Leap says owning these augmented reality glasses (Magic Leap calls it mixed reality) will be like living in the future ahead of everyone else. But at $2,295 each, the early adopters will be taking a leap of faith that the applications will be there to make the investment in the device pay off. Magic Leap will show more of the interface and applications at the Magic Leap Developers conference in Los Angeles on October 9-October 10. For now, we had a short demo of a single app with a working headset. As I described in my preview of the Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot game (from Rovio Entertainment and Resolution Games ), the Magic Leap goggles can superimpose a layer of virtual animations on the real world. When you look through the glasses, you can see a three-dimensional pig’s fortress in animated form. It can sit on a surface like a coffee table. “It’s an exciting device and it was fun to work on this project,” said Tommy Palm, the CEO of Resolution Games, which built the Angry Birds game in collaboration with Rovio, in an interview with GamesBeat. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The headset can do “occlusion” well. That means that virtual objects can obstruct the view of the real world objects behind them. As you can see in the embedded video, you can see that a slingshot will obscure items behind it, or the pig fortresses will obscure the view of the real things behind it. The gameplay is interesting because the fortress is in 3D, and, while wearing the glasses, you can walk around it, 360 degrees, and see the animation from every angle. When you launch a bird at the pig’s fortress with a slingshot, the blocks will fall based on the physics of the objects around it, like the table. So most of the blocks will fall down onto the real table, but a few will fall off the edge to the floor of your own home. However, there are some problems with the experience. If you notice, the little pig can cast a shadow to the side of it, enhancing the realism of the animation. But the animated pig fortress itself does not. The video reveals that the big fortress casts no shadow at all, and I found in my demo that this is true even if you walk around the whole perimeter. That doesn’t matter for Angry Birds, which is cartoony, but it does matter for more realistic images where the artist is really trying to superimpose an augmented reality layer on the real world in what is called mixed reality. Also, at the moment, Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot is a single-player experience. You may be chuckling and expressing yourself, but there’s no way for your friends to see what’s happening on the screen. Right now, I don’t know if it will be possible to stream from the device so that others can see it on a TV, as the representatives from Resolution Games and Rovio didn’t know. The lack of multiplayer at the outset isn’t going to doom the headset, but Magic Leap better jump on multiplayer or spectating as soon as it can — or explain how long it’s going to take to deliver it. And if you haven’t heard yet, you won’t be able to use your expensive headset outdoors. The Magic Leap Lightwear headset is meant for indoor usage only. You can’t use it while you’re on the run, except when you are inside a building. On the plus side, I didn’t feel isolated. I could see my companions around me as they were watching me play. I could see the real world around me, along with the animations. They couldn’t see what I saw, but they could hear the fortresses crashing and could hear if I made a good shot or not. In that respect, it’s far different from virtual reality, where you feel cut off from the outside world. The device has about three hours of battery life. The handheld controller has one button and a trigger, and the headset has a touch-sensitive touchpad. The device has six-degrees of freedom positional and orientation tracking. The Lightwear headset comes with a Lightpack, which is like two hockey pucks glued to each other. I was told to hang the Lightpack on my pocket, so half of it was in my pocket and half was outside of it. I put it inside, and in a short time, my pocket got warm. The device crashed once, presumably because it got too hot in my pocket. So I had to pull it out. Above: Magic Leap One Creator Edition up close. The Lightpack has a Nvidia Tegra central processing unit (CPU), dubbed Parker System-on-chip, (SoC). It has two Denver 2.0 64-bit cores, four ARM Cortex A57 cores, and 256 CUDA graphics processing unit (GPU) cores. It has 8GB of main memory and 128GB of storage, with 95 of that available for applications. The headset has onboard speakers with 3.5 millimeter jack with audio spatialization processing. It has Bluetooth 4.2 and WiFi 802.11ac/b/g/n. And it charges with a 45-watt USB-C power charger. At the moment, the Magic Leap One Creator Edition is available in a handful of cities. When you purchase it, someone from Enjoy Technology will deliver it and install it for you at your home. Rovio and Resolution Games are anticipating a fall 2018 release for Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot. The Magic Leap One Creator Edition is available now. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Oculus CTO John Carmack hopes VR will connect people across the globe | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/27/oculus-cto-john-carmack-hopes-vr-will-connect-people-across-the-globe"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Oculus CTO John Carmack hopes VR will connect people across the globe Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn John Carmack, CTO of Oculus, at Oculus Connect 5. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. John Carmack had an apt opening line in his Oculus Connect 5 keynote speech today in San Jose, California. “A long-term vision can be a rug you sweep your current shortcomings under,” said the chief technology officer at Facebook’s Oculus division. He proceeded to talk for 90 minutes about a lot of small details about what works or doesn’t work with various Oculus virtual reality products, as well as his actual vision for getting social VR to bring people around the world closer together. I’m sure the product managers and PR folks were squirming throughout this talk, but for the audience and the press (those who can abide the tech details and the minutiae) Carmack’s annual keynotes at the Oculus event are refreshingly honest. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Carmack said he doesn’t like talking about long-term vision, in contrast to Oculus chief scientist Mike Abrash, who spoke yesterday about the 10-year vision for virtual reality and augmented reality. Rather, Carmack likes conquering the “local hills” that get the company to a better product along the way. Those things included topics like “chromatic aberration correction.” He was quite pleased with the success of the Oculus Go, a standalone VR headset released in May. Sales have been brisk, for a VR product, and it stands in between the mobile VR solutions that require a phone and the PC-based Oculus Rift. He said the speed of the experience was good and the no-headset audio speakers were an excellent solution, even for 3D audio. The result overall was better user retention, meaning people came back to it more than they did to other products like the Samsung Gear VR. Carmack pointed out that the product was doing well in Japan, and he hypothesized that people who live in dense areas long for more freedom, and virtual reality is a pleasant place for them to go and wander freely in virtual spaces. “VR can be counted as the antidote to couch potatoes,” Carmack said. Above: That’s John Carmack on the Oculus Connect 5 stage. He said the company has been working on ways to improve the Oculus Go, like extending its battery power. They are adding low-power modes and night modes, which use less power. And they are adding microSD support, which consumes some power but adds the ability to have removable storage. Carmack said that the curation of titles for the Oculus Quest, a wireless VR headset with two hand controllers, will be more rigorous. The Quest comes out for $400 in the spring, and it will have 50 titles available at he outset. But Carmack said the quality bar will be higher for Quest games. At that price, VR experiences will approach the consoles in terms of their ability to snag consumers who want a quick and reliable gaming experience. He compared the Oculus Quest in that way to the Nintendo Switch. If you are in an environment where you are moving and other things are moving and you need to use your hands, the Oculus Quest will be a very good experience, Carmack said. Above: John Carmack believes social VR will help people defy distances. Carmack said that the team is under “marching orders” to do more with social to combat the isolation of VR. For that, he believes casting, or showing a video of what someone is seeing in VR on a mobile screen or TV, will be a big win for making VR into a social experience. “Casting to phones is going to be a wonderful things for that,” he said. “It will make it so much fun to watch someone playing VR, even if you are just looking over their shoulder. He said that a mundane experience of watching TV with someone will become a key advantage of VR, Carmack said, helping it fulfill its mantra of “defy distance,” allowing people to feel like they are together even if they are miles apart. As for the future, Carmack hopes that the development team will be able to put more emphasis on improving 360-degree video, such as getting perfect frames and other quality details, on VR devices. “A lot of my duties are to provide these lighthouse experiences,” like enabling the Henry VR video to run in 5K resolution, he said. Another project Carmack worked on in the past year was creating a way to put desktop screens into VR, so you can work on your computer while inside VR. That was challenging in terms of putting a 2D monitor’s content into a 3D environment in VR in a way that makes it readable. Oculus announced that technology yesterday, and so it works. But there’s more work to do on that in making it more accurate. Carmack had lots more to say, but he ran out of time. I can’t say I absorbed everything in Carmack’s rambling talk, which repeated some things but reflected his remarkable ability to speak about an enormous amount of detail extemporaneously. But the techies seem to love his talks, as if he were the god of VR. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Magic Leap accuses Nreal founder of stealing AR glasses tech for China | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/18/magic-leap-accuses-nreal-founder-of-stealing-ar-glasses-tech-for-china"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Magic Leap accuses Nreal founder of stealing AR glasses tech for China Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Nreal on display at the AWE event. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Chinese startup Nreal shocked CES attendees in January by revealing impressively compact augmented reality glasses that had serious potential to redefine the stagnant market for AR hardware. Now rival Magic Leap is accusing Nreal’s founder of stealing its proprietary information to rapidly bring the headset to market in competition with its own product, Magic Leap One. As noted by Bloomberg, Magic Leap filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Chi Xu and Nreal, suggesting that Xu used part of his 13-month employment with Magic Leap to pilfer secrets for a competing business in China. Magic Leap, of course, spent years teasing its development of a cutting-edge augmented reality headset before finally releasing Magic Leap One last year. Though Xu left Magic Leap in 2016, well before the One headset’s launch, his former employer claims he neglected his duties so he could gather Magic Leap’s proprietary information. The Florida-based company is accusing Xu of breach of contract, fraud, and unfair competition. While no company owns all the concepts behind AR glasses, there’s no question that the headsets include countless technology discoveries developed by many people over the past decade. Magic Leap specifically accuses Xu of leveraging its seven years and “hundreds of millions of dollars” of investments in “hundreds of engineers” to supposedly take Nreal from nothing to a functioning prototype in less than two years. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! It’s unclear whether the lawsuit will hobble Nreal’s consumer launch of the Nreal Light headset , which was scheduled for later this year. At an aggressive $500 asking price, Light would be less than one-fourth the Magic Leap One’s current $2,295 MSRP, a savings achieved partially by relying on the purchaser’s existing Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 smartphone rather than a dedicated computing puck for much of its processing needs. The original report notes that Nreal was started in Beijing, China as Hangzhou Tairuo Technology, and Bloomberg suggests that it’s yet another example of intellectual property theft from a U.S. company by a Chinese one. While that may be true, it’s also worth noting that large companies sometimes levy shaky accusations of IP theft against former employees to extract financial concessions from their subsequent startups, with final judgments and/or settlements varying based on a variety of factors. VR pioneer Oculus was famously sued and compelled to settle a trade secret case by Zenimax Media, the prior employer of key Oculus technologist John Carmack, who continuously denied wrongdoing. Update on June 19, 2020 at 6:29 a.m. Pacific: One year after Magic Leap filed the lawsuit against Nreal, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has dismissed the case, citing a lack of specificity in Magic Leap’s allegations of wrongdoing. If Magic Leap doesn’t submit a more specific complaint by July 17, the case will be over. “From the beginning we’ve firmly stated that Magic Leap’s claims against Nreal are meritless,” Xu said in a statement to VentureBeat. “We will be continuing to move forward on delivering our vision of consumer-grade mixed reality technology to the masses with Nreal Light.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Unconfirmed reports suggest Apple has killed AR glasses project (updated) | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/11/unconfirmed-reports-suggest-apple-has-killed-ar-glasses-project"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Unconfirmed reports suggest Apple has killed AR glasses project (updated) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Nreal's smartglasses cost $500. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Apple’s project to develop augmented reality glasses qualifies as an open secret, as the company has hired AR engineers, filed related patents , and reportedly iterated on the hardware for two or more years. But a new report from the hit-and-miss Taiwanese supply chain publication DigiTimes (via MacRumors ) claims that Apple has “terminated AR glasses development,” which if true would be devastating news for the innovation-focused company. At the moment, the report appears on a paywalled, breaking news section of the DigiTimes site ahead of its formal appearance in Chinese-language publications, so substantiating details are not yet available. But DigiTimes has a track record of providing early information on developments within Apple’s supply chain, some major and some minor, with a mixed but mostly positive record of accuracy. Well-sourced rumors claimed Apple was working on AR glasses that would run a new operating system, “rOS” — which, like watchOS, would have been based on the smartphone operating system iOS. Early reports suggested the glasses might be standalone or depend on an external computer-like box, but more recently Apple was said to be leaning on the iPhone to handle computing for the headset. Apple’s reported progress through those options notably coincided with the releases of rival AR headsets, including Microsoft’s all-in-one HoloLens , Magic Leap’s wearable puck-tethered Magic Leap One , and Nreal Light. That particularly lightweight pair (shown above) has its own Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and relies on a USB-C-connected Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 -based smartphone for much of the heavy lifting , an arrangement similar to Apple’s most recently reported plan. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Though AR has seen only limited consumer interest, due as much to sky-high hardware prices as limited applications, Nreal’s $500 Light design appeared set for a market breakthrough this year. But the company was sued last month by Magic Leap , which claims that Nreal’s founder stole enabling concepts and technologies, allowing the startup to offer a comparatively affordable and lightweight option without incurring years of R&D expenses. Like Nreal, Apple was believed to be working on a design that was all but indistinguishable from conventional glasses. When Apple announced that chief design officer Jony Ive was leaving the company to form his own design firm, LoveFrom, reports suggested Apple’s internal design team was currently working on the AR glasses project as one of its major new initiatives. Absent dedicated hardware, Apple has been heavily pushing AR software initiatives to developers over the past three Worldwide Developers Conferences, unveiling ARKit , ARKit 2.0 , and ARKIt 3.0 in quick succession to expand coders’ access to augmented reality development tools. This week, the company announced the opening of an app design and development assistance office in China , notably beginning with AR-focused educational sessions to bring the country’s software community up to speed on its latest technologies. Apple does not typically comment on unannounced projects, so there may be no official confirmation or denial of the DigiTimes report. We’ll update this article with more information if and when it becomes available. Update at 1:20 p.m. Pacific: The full DigiTimes report is now available ( translated ), including claims from “people familiar with the situation” that Apple’s AR/VR headset team was disbanded in May, and its “original members were transferred to other product developments.” Specifically, the report suggests that the disbanding took place after Microsoft HoloLens co-creator Avi Bar-Zeev left his job leading Apple’s AR headset development team in January. According to the report, industry speculation is that Apple may have struggled to make the glasses light enough, incorporate 5G networking , or get enough AR content for the glasses. However, DigiTimes offers scant additional details to support its claims, and suggests that the termination could be “temporary,” awaiting maturation of both the technology and content needed to produce the device. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Facebook: Expect Oculus Insight tracking in future wearable AR glasses | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/22/facebook-expect-oculus-insight-tracking-in-future-wearable-ar-glasses"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook: Expect Oculus Insight tracking in future wearable AR glasses Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Oculus Quest's inside-out Insight tracking system is powered by SLAM software and multiple integrated cameras. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Ask any Oculus Quest or Rift S user to name the headset’s most impressive new feature, and there’s a good chance they’ll point to Insight , the tracking system that accurately senses your head and body movements without external cameras. In blog posts today, Facebook is revealing some of Insight’s little-known technical details while making an interesting prediction : “the future for this technology is in all-day wearable AR glasses that are spatially aware.” Engineers already knew that Insight uses computer vision and visual-inertial simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technologies for tracking, relying on multiple wide-angle cameras to track controller locations and your relative position in a room. But making Insight run on a mobile processor for VR purposes was no simple feat, due in equal parts to the heavy computational requirements of real-time 3D space mapping and a headset wearer’s intolerance for tracking imperfections that might not be noticeable on mobile displays — jitter, swimminess, and inaccuracy. Oculus engineers decided that Insight’s “spatial AI” system needed to work to a sub-millimeter level of accuracy, and do so without eating the Quest’s entire processing budget. Several tricks brought Insight to life, including efficient multithreading. The Oculus team reserved Quest’s more power-hungry GPU and 2.45GHz “gold” CPU cores entirely for apps and games, while giving its power-efficient 1.9GHz “silver” CPU cores responsibility for tracking and OS functions. Optimizations enabled the silver cores to operate predictively and semi-independently in maintaining Insight’s room maps and positional data, while the gold cores and the GPU generated visuals specific to the user’s current viewing angle. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! To reduce the hit on the silver cores while improving accuracy, the team cross-referenced external motion capture data from high-end OptiTrack cameras against internal data captured from real Quest and Rift S users in “hundreds of environments,” including studios and employees’ homes with varied real-world lighting conditions and obstructions. The resulting models precisely captured users’ positions to compare against Insight’s findings so unnecessary processing could be minimized and inaccuracies could be eliminated. Special low-latency sensor data and kinematic predictions helped considerably, as well. Insight’s next big step will apparently be from VR to AR. Going forward, Facebook plans to further reduce sensor latencies and cut “power consumption down to as little as 2 percent of what’s needed for SLAM” on a VR headset, enabling Insight to power tracking for AR glasses capable of being worn all day. The company is already suggesting that they’ll be “lightweight” and “stylish,” at least eventually. Despite Facebook’s continued work on AR software , it doesn’t sound like the company is ready to bring Insight to AR hardware right away. Facebook suggests that chips will need to keep evolving — which they will, thanks to manufacturing innovations — and that it will need to develop new AI to “further optimize the process of synthesizing multiple sensor inputs.” Whether the first pair of all-day wearable AR glasses with Insight are ultimately Facebook-branded or co-created with another company remains to be seen. But it’s clear that Insight already represents enough of a technology milestone for VR that large hardware companies might want to license it for their AR solutions; if they don’t, it’s possible that your first pair of AR glasses will have a Facebook or Oculus logo on their temples. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft will release HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset in September | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/29/microsoft-will-release-hololens-2-augmented-reality-headset-in-september"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft will release HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset in September Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The moon landing in HoloLens 2. Microsoft has finally set a release date for its second-generation augmented reality headset, HoloLens 2. Executive vice president Harry Shum told attendees at Shanghai’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference that the device will go on sale in September 2019, Reuters reports. Thanks to its $3,500 asking price, HoloLens 2 is being targeted primarily at enterprises and developers, rather than the general population, just like the original HoloLens. The new version boasts a variety of comfort improvements, including more balanced front and back weight, plus a flip-up visor design, eye-tracking, improved time-of-flight gesture tracking, and a larger field of view. While HoloLens reportedly suffered from very limited adoption, Microsoft is working to make the sequel more successful with a variety of hardware and software changes. The new model uses an ARM processor, supports Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 , and gives developers access to a wider range of APIs and drivers, including the ability to create their own app stores for distribution of HoloLens 2 apps. Last month, the company offered an impressive demonstration of the device’s AI and near-photorealistic rendering capabilities, generating a foreign language-translating human avatar to deliver an English language speech in Japanese. Microsoft has been taking preorders for HoloLens 2 for months and making units available to select developers, so the September release date appears to be when the company will commence shipments more broadly. If Microsoft follows its prior HoloLens strategy , demo units could appear in its retail stores during the holiday season. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"AltSpaceVR boosts social VR with a new capture technique | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2016/11/13/altspacevr-boosts-social-vr-with-a-new-capture-technique"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AltSpaceVR boosts social VR with a new capture technique Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Bruce Wooden is debuting a new feature for social VR platform, AltSpaceVR. To introduce it, he needs help from a guest. He motions to a set of doors that open, and in walks none other than Bruce Wooden. The AltSpace developer was showcasing VR Capture, a means of recording performances within the app and then playing them back. The first Wooden was really a recording he had taken earlier, and the second was the real man in the virtual flesh. VR Capture recorded his avatar’s movements and voice, making the recording indistinguishable from a live avatar, unless of course you were to try and interrupt them. It’s a feature we haven’t yet seen from other social VR applications, but could become an important piece of the puzzle as we move more of ourselves into virtual spaces. For AltSpace as a platform, this means that regular live shows like the stand up comedy sessions hosted by Reggie Watts can now be recorded so that you won’t have to attend live, you can watch them back at another scheduled time. VR Capture will first be available to content creation partners like Watts and for special events; the team isn’t talking about availability for everyone just yet. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! We hope that support does arrive soon though; imagine making a one-man play, for example, or recording your virtual reactions to video content. There are no limits to how many people can watch a recording, and users can move about the space during playback, just like they could if it was happening live. The feature doesn’t require an additional hardware or software, and offers immediate playback. Recordings are streamed from the cloud. This post first appeared on UploadVR. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"AltspaceVR founder wants to make virtual reality as accessible as the web | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/10/altspacevr-founder-wants-to-make-virtual-reality-as-accessible-as-the-web"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AltspaceVR founder wants to make virtual reality as accessible as the web Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn AltspaceVR Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Eric Romo and his cofounders at AltspaceVR want to make virtual reality as pervasive and accessible as the worldwide web. AltspaceVR is leading the charge to create a social VR experience, where people do in VR pretty much everything they do in real life. Founded in 2013, the Redwood City, Calif.-based company now has more than 40 people. And it has raised $16 million since 2016. The crowds were thin at first, but on a given weekend night, you’ll now find parties with hundreds of people attending them. It’s now used in 150 countries. I’m not sure what all this means, and why social events will be more fun in VR. So I caught up with Romo at the recent SVVR event in San Jose, Calif. Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation. Above: Eric Romo, CEO of Altspace VR at SVVR. GB: How have you evolved over time? Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Eric Romo: I started the company in 2013. The first year was me in a room, in my home office, tinkering with stuff. We went into closed beta by the end of 2014. We were showing people the product a couple of days at a time. And then in 2015 we opened up full time. At the time the only headset anyone had was the Rift DK2. Since then we’ve expanded to all the rest of the platforms. We’re on Rift and Vive and Gear VR and Daydream now as well. Today we’re showing the advances we’ve made continually on our SDK. The first time we talked about that was probably September 2015. We’ve always talked about Altspace as this intermingling of game and web technology. We’re built on top of Unity, and we have a version of Chromium, the open-source version of Google’s Chrome, built into the product. Things you see and do in Altspace, often you’ll think—because of the way more VR applications are built, you would think of them as game things built in a game engine. But in reality they’re websites, effectively. A way to think about this, all the things you’ll see in the trailer over there, or if you get a chance to try the demo station—everything you experience is literally a website. It’s written in A-Frame, which is a markup language like HTML. The objects and things in the room, in space, are pulled down in real time from servers, just like images on a website in your normal browser. We’ve created this bridge between the web and things that game engines are good at. Game engines are good at high framerate rendering, good at integrating controller interactions, good at physics. We’ve given developers who use our SDK the ability to use the elements of a game engine when they write what’s effectively a VR website. We’re trying to create the best of both worlds in the VR web experience. Above: Altspace VR comedy night. GB: What are some of the most interesting things people are creating or finding a way to do? Romo: Most of the things they’re showing in this trailer are literally just the newest ones this week, which is a lot of fun. The things most users experience in Altspace, what developers have created, are things like party apps. Great places for people to hang out, listen to music, play card games, and interact. On an average weekend we’ll have multiple parties with hundreds of people showing up in Altspace. Somebody built a boxing gym, where you get gloves on your hands and people are dancing around the ring. There’s a climbing application, so you can climb around the virtual space. The one before that was a miniature version of the room you’re in as part of the space, almost like a dollhouse, and if you put your hand in that miniature version, a giant hand appears in the room with you. People are experimenting with the functionality of this bridge between the web and a game engine. We’re excited about just giving people this canvas. From a developer’s perspective, some things are very challenging about VR. Being cross-platform is tough to do. Unity helps make that easier, but if you survey the market and look at what apps are on all four major platforms, there are very few. We tell developers, “If you develop something once to work in AltspaceVR, using A-Frame or our SDK, it’ll work on every platform.” Developers can build one thing and obviate the need to figure out the store situation. They just go directly to all users on all platforms. That’s a valuable thing. Above: You can hang out with your friends in VR in AltspaceVR GB: How many people do you have working for you now? Did you raise money recently? Romo: We have about 40 people at the company. The last time we raised money was about two years ago. We’ve raised about $16 million so far. GB: How do you keep advancing this and stay out of the way of the likes of Facebook? Romo: As we set out our focus was, we don’t know how long the market’s going to take to evolve. Mark Zuckerberg talks about this as a five to 10 year plan, right? While we wait for the market to catch up, we need to build integral pieces of technology. Our SDK is a great example of that. It’s core to the way we think the VR web will expand, this marriage between game engines and web technology. We’ve built really hard things that we think are valuable and useful irrespective of when the market arrives. What’s exciting to us is you just have tons of innovation in the space, including from Facebook. GB: Is there some kind of standard? Does WebVR come into this in some way? Romo: It’s related. All the stuff here is built with A-Frame, which is a cousin or brother or something like that to WebVR. WebVR is literally the standards that make VR things happen in a web browser. It allows you to use your HTC Vive with Google Chrome, for example. But what we’re building on top of is all the power of the 3D web. This is things like WebGL, Three.js, and libraries for people who build 3D things that now we’re allowing to render themselves in a virtual space, in Altspace. With A-Frame we give developers a markup language that’s relatively simple and human-readable, like HTML, whereby they can then lay out the environment people go into and the things they do there. That code right there is the code for the space where all these things are happening on the screen. All the signs and the objects and the pictures, all that’s written in markup code that fits on that one sheet. We think it’s important that the experiences you have together in virtual spaces—lots of people are going to want to build those, just like lots of people build websites. In order for that to happen it needs to be accessible, and A-Frame is something that helps make it accessible. At the same time, it needs to have the power of a game engine. The things that browsers don’t do well, game engines do. That’s the bridge we create. Above: AltspaceVR is a place to hang out in VR. GB: On the PC we’re seeing things like Linden Lab’s Sansar , which looks very nice with the tools they’ve provided. Do you want to get to that kind of visual quality? Romo: The great thing about the approach we’re taking is we’re embracing the web. We see this as, just like the web started as a file transfer protocol used for document viewing and eventually progressed to images and video, we’re seeing VR as part of that evolution of the web. We’re focused on building that VR layer on top of the web. There’s really no limit to what the quality can be. What you see in things like Sansar, you’re basically saying, “This will work on a small subset of machines that can render this type of imagery.” Our approach has been to hit a broader swath of the market – things that work on mobile, on Daydream and Gear VR. It’s a difference in focus. Should we hit the top end of the market or a broader spectrum? But there’s no particular reason why a developer couldn’t create something that looked similar to that high-end stuff. It would just only work on a few machines. GB: Who else seems like they’re in a related space? Is Roblox somewhat similar? Romo: I suppose so. The difference is, they’re embracing user-generated content, a democratization where lots of people will be creating content. We think that’s a way to go. We’re focusing on the professional creator market a bit more, people who are going to write code to create these experiences versus something where I’ll go into a space and work with my hands to create an object in that space. There’s a place for that, certainly, but we’ve been more focused on people who build websites, people who build games. Those are the folks we’re targeting with the SDK. Above: AltspaceVR GB: How are you monetizing this? Romo: We’ve been focused on getting the quality of the experience to a place where we could consider charging people for things. The last thing we want to do is have an experience that somebody pays for and they think it’s not worth it. We have a big focus around these live events in Altspace you might have seen. We did the partnership with NBC around the election. We’ve done shows with Reggie Watts where we have thousands of people showing up. The average users spends almost an hour in some of these events. There aren’t many pieces of content in VR people will spend an hour with. There are avenues to monetizing to that content, but the reality is that our best events are thousands of people. If you go to Twitch right now, you’d have to go down to the hundredth most popular stream on the League of Legends channel alone to get to a thousand people. It’s early days for thinking about monetization. What we see as a trigger is if the engagement is there. If I can spend a user to spend an hour in something, there’s eventually a way to transact with that user. GB: Does your traffic generally match the popularity of all the different platforms? Is Gear VR first? Romo: We’ve remained relatively steady at about half Gear VR, yeah. Or half mobile, including Daydream, and then half Rift and Vive. We find the same thing a lot of people find. Session times on mobile are shorter. Average session time on Rift or Vive might be 40 or 45 minutes. Average session time on Gear VR or Daydream might be about 20 minutes. They stay for less time, which makes sense, because of the lack of controllers, the lack of tracking. They can’t move around as much. Users on mobile are a bit less sticky because there are so many of them. They’re trying to figure out how to use this free thing they’ve got. Above: Talking politics in AltspaceVR GB: Are you more hopeful for the PC or for mobile? Romo: Personally, at least, I’m a big believer in the direction mobile is headed, but not necessarily in mobile as it’s currently incarnated. It’s hard for me to imagine my aunt or uncle getting a PC and a Rift or a Vive and setting it up. Not that they’re not technical, but the user experience is challenging if you’re not a gamer. At the same time, only a subset of people have the right phones for mobile. Mobile lacks things like head tracking that are really prerequisites for a great VR experience. There’s an interesting direction emerging in the stand-alone headset market. I have a thesis that that’s what will win commercially in the space, eventually. Things like Qualcomm’s VR 835 that they showed at GDC, the Intel Alloy project , the Facebook Santa Cruz project , these are things that you imagine would have the price of a tablet, roughly. You buy one box, take it out of the box, turn it on, and it works. From a consumer perspective, that’s much easier than trying to figure out how to set up a computer and so on. It’s obviously early days in the entire VR market, but that’s our thesis. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"What AltspaceVR's shutdown says about virtual reality's prospects | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/29/what-altspace-vrs-shutdown-says-about-virtual-realitys-prospects"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages What AltspaceVR’s shutdown says about virtual reality’s prospects Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn You can hang out with your friends in VR in AltspaceVR Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Fans of virtual reality felt a punch to the gut this week as AltspaceVR announced it would hold its last social VR gathering on August 3 and then shut down. AltspaceVR was a social space in VR where people could gather in environments that resembled virtual worlds. They could create their own avatars and chat with friends. As such, AltspaceVR was like a harbinger of what the world would look like as a virtual society. Facebook followed up with its own version of social VR chat, while others — such as Rec Room, Roblox, Linden Lab, and TheWave VR — have offered their own takes on social VR. In a blog post , the company said it ran into “unforeseen financial difficulty” and couldn’t afford to “keep the virtual lights on anymore.” The post said the company tried to raise a new round of funding but a deal fell through and it ran out of time and money. It added: ” We’d love to see this technology, if not the company, live on in some way, and we’re working on that.” Eric Romo, CEO of AltspaceVR, started the company in his home office in 2013. The company raised $10.3 million in 2015 from Comcast Ventures, Tencent, Dolby Family Ventures, Raine Ventures, Lux Capital, Western Technology Investments, Maven Ventures, Promus Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, and Rothenberg Ventures. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Romo said in an interview with GamesBeat in April that AltspaceVR was hoping to monetize events that companies paid for, not unlike the way Linden Lab monetized corporations in its Second Life virtual world. But AltspaceVR’s traffic was relatively small, at about 35,000 users a month. That’s a sign of how small the overall base for VR is and it probably tells you why the company ran out of funds, as that number isn’t enough to get investors excited. It’s not clear exactly what this means for other VR startups, but everybody knows that growth is slower than expected. (Mobile and PC-based VR units are expected to grow from 6.4 million globally in 2016 to 20.3 million in 2017, according to SuperData Research.) Other VR startups, such as enterprise-focused Envelop VR , have also shut down this year. Above: Eric Romo, CEO of AltspaceVR at SVVR. “Altspace advanced VR as a medium and, while it may have been ahead of its time, it demonstrated the potential of social VR. Everyone working in VR should be grateful for their contributions to the space,” said Amitt Mahajan, cofounder of Presence Capital, which invests in AR and VR startups. “I think we’re likely to see a virtual world like Altspace eventually work, but it’ll likely be something that first starts off fairly constrained in what you can do with others and grows from there to a fully fledged social network.” Greg Castle, founder of Anorak Ventures and an early Oculus investor, said he was sad about the AltspaceVR news. “There are two distinct strategies I see in social VR,” he said in an email. “Companies focused on building out the infrastructure (outside in), and those focused on customer experience (inside out). AltSpace and Linden Lab’s Sansar, for example, have spent a lot of time building out a really robust infrastructure platform and are largely relying on other developers to create fun experiences built atop their platform. Rec Room and Star Trek, on the other hand, have focused more on providing a compelling, engaging experience off the bat for users, which in turn has the potential to build a strong social community. Given the user numbers and slower adoption curve, as an investor I prefer the latter strategy.” Above: AltspaceVR comedy night. He added, “In terms of what it means for venture-backed VR companies, I think it’s probably a reality check in a somewhat frothy market. I think Eric and his team are fantastic and trust they’ll find their way.” And Tipatat Chennavasin, cofounder of the Venture Reality Fund, said in an email, “When a shutdown happens, it’s hard to understand without knowing all the details. AltspaceVR, led by Eric Romo, was a true pioneer and did some ground-breaking work in VR and social. It’s a shame they weren’t able to get further funds to continue to innovate — the news also comes right after Within announcing a $40 million round, indicating evolving investor dynamics in the sector.” Chennavasin added: “For later venture rounds, the bar is raised higher and tangible metrics really come into play. A lot of times the main challenge for early innovators is to manage the company’s growth in a nascent but potentially explosive market where there are no established investment patterns and the venture investors are still discovering the subtleties of the sector. Altspace has opened many doors of creativity and teased us all with compelling possibilities in social VR. I’m afraid their timing wasn’t precisely aligned with investor sentiments, especially in later rounds where certain growth parameters are expected, which is hard to do in early stages of the VR market with a small installed base. One last thing I will add is that the team were not just pioneers but also great supporters of the larger VR development community and will be missed. They have definitely learned a lot on their journey and I look forward to seeing what they do next.” Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, also said on Thursday that it may be a couple of years’ wait for the mass VR market. Jason Rubin, head of studios at Oculus VR, said in an interview last week that he isn’t surprised big companies like EA and Activision Blizzard haven’t jumped into VR yet. He sees smaller companies moving into VR that they will stake out the opportunities first. Once that happens, the big companies, like EA, will likely acquire those that have the lead. Regarding Wilson’s comments, Mahajan said, “I don’t disagree with him. The consumer VR market is going to take a while to develop still. I think new Daydream phones and Apple’s (rumored) addition of an OLED screen to the iPhone 8 will help drive adoption of mass market consumer VR. But we’re at least one phone refresh cycle away (18 to 24 months) from everyone having VR available to them.” Stephanie Llamas, analyst at SuperData Research, said, “I think the closure was an example of how good companies suffer from the prematurely inflated expectations for the industry as a whole that many companies had early on. Primarily, investors are now spooked because there was an overvaluation of the market. Now that growth isn’t going as fast as they’d expected, they reevaluated their risk and are now undervaluing certain opportunities. AltspaceVR was truly a pioneer in the social VR space. It should not have been discounted, and I honestly think this is a tragedy for the industry.” Bjorn Laurin, vice president of product at Linden Lab, said he too was sorry to see the sad outcome for AltspaceVR. But he said, “We remain bullish on the future of social VR.” GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Mozilla launches Hubs, a social browser-based WebVR experiment | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/26/mozilla-launches-hubs-a-social-browser-based-webvr-experiment"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Mozilla launches Hubs, a social browser-based WebVR experiment Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Mozilla Hubs Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Mozilla is continuing its mission to make the browser a core facet of virtual reality (VR) today with the launch of Hubs , a WebVR experiment from the mixed reality team at Mozilla, which touts this latest app as an “immersive social experience.” You begin by visiting the Hubs portal through any browser, then you choose a name for your virtual room, a robotic avatar, and a name for yourself, and you can enter the virtual world. To interact with friends, you can then copy/paste the URL and share a dedicated link with them. Above: Hubs: Invite friends The process of getting things set up is pretty simple, and Mozilla designed it to highlight the ease of access it believes VR needs. “No gatekeepers. No installation process. Just click and you are there,” the company said in a blog post. Indeed, Hubs adheres to web standards, works with any device, supports all the usual headsets/goggles (including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Daydream, and Cardboard), and also open to those with no specialist VR hardware on desktops and mobile phones — an inclusive gesture to ensure everyone can participate, not just those with dedicated VR hardware. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! This means that in Firefox or Chrome, for example, you can view and interact with friends using your touchscreen, mouse, and keyboard. Above: Hang with friends Mozilla is one of the leading developers of WebVR , a JavaScript API that it hopes will make VR more accessible through browsers on PCs and mobile devices while also supporting the majority of the big-name headsets. Google brought WebVR support to Chrome in some Daydream-ready Android phones last year, and Mozilla’s Firefox later became the first desktop browser to officially support the WebVR standard. Mozilla also announced a new mixed reality development program in October, with an initial focus on getting “devices, headsets, frameworks, and toolsets to work together.” Hubs fits firmly into those plans. “This is one of many experiments we’ll be sharing from that work,” Mozilla said in reference to Hubs. “Using the web as a platform provides people with better choices and greater access. People shouldn’t have to be locked into a specific platform or device. They should be able to connect and engage with the web wherever it expands.” This latest launch comes less than a month after Mozilla announced Firefox Reality , a cross-platform open source browser for AR and VR headsets that helped reinforce Mozilla’s push to ensure VR and AR experiences aren’t locked in silos. “This technology is at tipping point,” Mozilla said. “If we want to continue to bring immersive experiences into the mainstream, we need to be laser-focused on removing friction for the user. The technology needs to step out of the way, and the experiences need to take center stage.” Hubs is just an experiment for now, but Mozilla said there are plans to expand its scope to allow users to create their own virtual worlds and avatars. The company said it may also introduce integrations with “existing communications tools” in the future. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Rec Room is coming to Oculus Quest | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/31/rec-room-is-coming-to-oculus-quest"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Rec Room is coming to Oculus Quest Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Rec Room now has clubhouses. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Another much-anticipated VR app is on its way to the Oculus Quest headset. Against Gravity’s social VR platform, Rec Room, will come to the device this spring. Rec Room is a free-to-play platform that allows friends to meet up, play a variety of games and create content together as customized avatars. Players can either meet up in open hang out spaces or play sports games like dodgeball together. You can even take on more elaborate games like co-op adventure quests, paintball, and Rec Room’s take on battle royale. https://twitter.com/recroom/status/1110935090140340229 We’ve long thought of Rec Room as one of VR’s most important apps. On top of playing together, players can also customize rooms to their own look and then share them with others to provide new types of experiences. In January, we reported that the game had reached over one million players. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Against Gravity also confirmed to UploadVR that the Quest version of the game will support cross-play. this is a key feature for Rec Room, allowing those with an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows VR headset and even a PSVR to meet up online. Adding Quest to that mix should help expand the player base. Quest is due to launch this spring too, so it’s likely Rec Room will arrive alongside it. The headset costs $399 for a 64GB version but a 128GB device will arrive for $499 too. This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2019 GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Oculus Quest gets Venues and control tweaks, will run Go apps later in 2019 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/24/oculus-quest-gets-venues-and-control-tweaks-will-run-go-apps-later-in-2019"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Oculus Quest gets Venues and control tweaks, will run Go apps later in 2019 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Oculus Venues. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Oculus’ premium standalone headset Quest is in the midst of receiving its first round of significant software updates, the company has announced , and will soon dramatically widen its app support. While a couple of small but significant improvements are arriving this week, Oculus plans to let Quest run apps for the lower-end Go headset by the end of this year, potentially adding hundreds of additional entertainment experiences. For now, Quest users will benefit from two updates. First up is the release of Oculus Venues , a first-party social VR application that has previously been available on Oculus Go and Gear VR. The free app places you and your friends inside cartoony avatars on the edges of popular events — sports, concerts, and movies — so you’re able to watch live while talking with other people, just like in real life. Quest users will be able to join Go and Gear VR users inside Venues, which will kick off its summer season today with a soccer game at Yankee Stadium, and continue on July 31 with Tenacious D’s rock opera Post-Apocalypto. On the Quest version of Venues, full hand presence and 6DOF tracking are supported, giving participants more of a sense of participating in events rather than just watching them. Oculus is also tweaking Quest’s firmware with a couple of control changes, including an improved Touch tracking algorithm that promises better accuracy when your hands are close to or angled away from the headset. It’s also making improvements to Guardian that enhance its ability to remember multiple spaces, and enable users to tweak individual settings without beginning the setup process again. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Unfortunately, actually getting these firmware improvements isn’t as easy as just hitting a download button on the Quest or its companion smartphone app. The company bizarrely suggests that you just leave your headset turned on and connected to Wi-Fi, sitting on a flat surface, and it will show up at some point over the next several days. For the sake of users’ batteries and sanity, here’s hoping that a near-future update adds a “download firmware” button to the unit, too. Above: Oculus Go Perhaps the most exciting news was shared in a series of tweets from Oculus’ John Carmack , who notes that Quest will be adding a “Go emulation” mode that will automatically run some old apps — with the “hope [that] some [developers] will be inspired enough to convert older apps to proper ‘hybrid’ Go / Quest apps with explicit support.” Carmack says that “many old apps do magically get 6DOF headset and controller tracking, as well as higher resolution and frame rate,” which could make popular Go apps even more appealing on the newer and more expensive platform. This apparently doesn’t mean that the entire Go library will appear in the Quest store — Carmack hasn’t responded to questions on the subject, but left the impression that Oculus isn’t just opening the floodgates by merging the platforms’ app collections. At this point, it appears that Go apps that run properly on Quest could be easily added to the Quest catalog, while others could get either minor or more substantial tuning ahead of Quest availability. Initial developer reaction to the news isn’t as universally positive as might be expected, as at least one developer — Nathan Rowe of SculptrVR — notes that letting Quest users run Go apps might break his app’s differential pricing paradigm across platforms for the same app, which is limited to doing less on Go. Questions also remain as to whether Oculus will enable Go apps to be “backdoor published” on the Quest without facing the company’s more daunting quality- and popularity-focused approval process. These issues will likely be sorted out well before the end of the year, as developers will have the opportunity to test their Go apps for compatibility before the emulation feature goes live for Quest. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Red Matter's Oculus Quest sales eclipse its Rift sales in just 1 week | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/24/red-matters-oculus-quest-sales-eclipse-its-rift-sales-in-just-1-week"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Red Matter’s Oculus Quest sales eclipse its Rift sales in just 1 week Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Red Matter is a mystery exploration game set on Mars. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Sales of Red Matter on Oculus Quest have already surpassed the game’s lifetime sales on Rift, according to the developer Vertical Robot. The Rift version of the game launched 15 months ago. It currently has 172 ratings on the Rift store , averaging 4.4 stars. The Quest version is now at the No. 1 spot on the Top Selling list with 231 ratings or reviews, averaging 4.9 stars. The game is also available on Steam for Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Windows MR headsets. It has 95 written reviews, only 1 of which is negative. Vertical Robot hasn’t said anything publicly about sales on this platform. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Red Matter is a sci-fi puzzle game set in an alternative reality Cold War. As an astronaut of the Atlantic Union, you’re sent to an abandoned base on one of Saturn’s moons in search of a secret research project. We’ve always praised the game’s compelling immersion and narrative. When we reviewed the game on Oculus Quest , however, we were particullarly impressed with the game’s visuals, which are practically unparralleled on Quest. It looks like the extra work the studio put in really paid off. A Quest success story, but why? Red Matter doesn’t support cross-buy. That means you need to purchase it separately on Rift and Quest. This decision was made because it allowed for pricing flexibility across platforms. While the lack of cross-buy could be thought to be related to this sales milestone, we doubt enough people own multiple $400 VR headsets to truly make this a factor. Rather, the game’s high sales may be due to its quickly gained reputation as having the highest fidelity graphics of any Quest title. The top trusted review of the game on the Quest store , titled ‘Most visually stunning game on the Quest’, has currently been rated as ‘Helpful’ 110 times. Vertical Robot wrote custom shaders instead of using the standard Unreal Engine shaders. This allowed for advanced lighting effects not seen in any other Quest title so far. The milestone is also likely related to low barier to entry of the Oculus Quest as a product. While Quest is the same price as Rift S, the latter requires a gaming PC which typically cost on the order of $1000. As a standalone headset, Quest can be used by anyone with a smartphone to set it up. Other developers have reported similar sales trends, with Superhot VR selling “300% higher” on Quest than when it first launched on Rift. This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2019 GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Qualcomm cuts 5G millimeter wave antenna size by 25% ahead of 2019 debut | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/22/qualcomm-cuts-5g-millimeter-wave-antenna-size-by-25-ahead-of-2019-debut"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Qualcomm cuts 5G millimeter wave antenna size by 25% ahead of 2019 debut Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Cellular chipmakers have spent years working to miniaturize 5G components before the first 5G devices hit stores, and that process is continuing down to the wire. Mere months before the industry’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Qualcomm today announced that it has achieved a 25 percent reduction in the size of its 5G millimeter wave antennas, which are expected to be critical parts in early 5G mobile handsets. Qualcomm publicly revealed its first QTM052 millimeter wave (mmWave) antennas back in July, showing roughly fingertip-sized modules designed to pair with the company’s Snapdragon X50 5G modems. Each antenna is capable of being used on 26.5-29.5 GHz, 27.5-28.35 GHz, or 37-40 GHz mmWave bands, though Qualcomm has said device makers could include up to four antennas to prevent signal loss in handheld devices. Unfortunately, device makers have been struggling to fit even a single 5G antenna module within the ever-shrinking bezels of standard-sized modern smartphones. Last month, we noted that the latest images depicting prototype 5G smartphones were looking more like phablets than pocket devices and that reports have suggested multiple 5G chipmakers have been facing eleventh-hour miniaturization challenges. In response, Qualcomm said it was “laser-focused on ensuring smartphone size is not impacted” by inclusion of millimeter wave hardware. Today’s announcement demonstrates that Qualcomm and its partners are indeed making progress, even as the clock ticks down to the launch of early 5G mobile devices. By reducing the antenna’s size by a quarter, Qualcomm makes a single 5G antenna easier to implement and cuts a full antenna’s worth of volume from a four-antenna array — more space for a battery, or a way to make the smartphone smaller. The company says its dozens of OEM partners “now have more options for antenna placement, providing them with more freedom and flexibility in their 5G mmWave designs.” Qualcomm’s smaller QTM052 mmWave antenna module family is currently sampling to customers and is planned for commercial 5G device launches in early 2019. Xiaomi has promised to show off its first 5G smartphone this week, including Qualcomm components, and Lenovo has similarly said it will be using Qualcomm parts in its early 5G phones. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Decoding 5G: A cheat sheet for next-gen cellular concepts and jargon | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/12/decoding-5g-a-cheat-sheet-for-next-gen-cellular-concepts-and-jargon"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Decoding 5G: A cheat sheet for next-gen cellular concepts and jargon Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A 5G sign at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 28, 2018. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Everything about the next-generation cellular standard 5G is complicated — too complicated for average users, and guaranteed to confuse everyone except engineers once early 5G devices begin to hit shelves over the next few months. But 5G is about to become one of the world’s most important and transformative technologies, so it’s worth understanding right now. As VentureBeat’s resident 5G expert, that’s where I come in. To help you navigate the big picture concepts and jargon, I’ve put together a must-read “cheat sheet” that explains pretty much everything you need to know in one place. Rather than organizing everything in numeric or alphabetical order, I’ve clustered related concepts under a set of major headings. Bear in mind 5G is an international standard, but like 4G, it’s not done evolving. This list is just a start, and could evolve in the future as new terms appear. Above: A Samsung official shows off 5G tower hardware. Big picture Wireless communications Decades ago, all long-distance communications required wires, evolving from the basic “two cups connected by a string” to networks of wires that eventually connected most cities and countries to one another. While wired “land lines” are still used all over the world, radio-powered wireless devices began by freeing users from phone cords, then liberated phones from being tethered to homes and offices. Cellular technology Cellular wireless technology uses radio waves to send data from phones (and other mobile devices such as computers) to “cells” mounted on “cell towers,” where wires generally carry the data to servers, or to other cell towers for transmission to different phones. Each cellular “generation” uses improved radio technology to boost speeds and other dimensions of performance. Above: Qualcomm’s latest 5G millimeter wave antennas are designed to fit inside smartphones and computers. Cellular antennas and modems The radio components found inside cellular devices, collectively capable of creating, transmitting, receiving, and decoding cellular voice and data communications. A modem does the encoding and decoding, while the antennas help to listen for and broadcast radio signals. Small cell The backpack- or pizza box-sized cellular radio box mounted on a tower, lightpost, or building to transmit and receive 5G signals to a cellular carrier such as AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. These boxes are so named because they’re smaller than prior cell boxes, and frequently mounted on smaller (and potentially more visible) towers. Above: Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon shows off the company’s first live 5G reference phone design. 3G/4G/5G generational standards 3GPP The group responsible for developing international cellular standards. Short for 3rd Generation Partnership Project, this group has worked to harmonize 3G, 4G, and 5G specifications for the past two decades. 3G Third-generation cellular communications technologies, which were used in most mobile phones sold from 2007 through 2011-2012, unifying most (but not all) countries’ phones under a global standard. 4G LTE Fourth-generation cellular communications technologies, used in most phones sold from 2011-2012 through 2018. The 4G “Long-Term Evolution” (LTE) standard noticeably boosted data speeds over 3G, and became significantly faster over time. 5G / 5G NR Fifth-generation cellular communications, the late 2018/early 2019 follow-up to 4G. The 5G standard uses “New Radio” (NR) as a suffix, distinguishing this generation from 4G LTE. 5G TF A pre-standard version of 5G developed by Verizon so that it could debut an early next-generation network. In October 2018, Verizon launched this version of 5G in four U.S. cities, but has said it will replace 5G TF devices with standards-compliant 5G NR hardware in late 2018 and early 2019. Release 15 Also known as 3GPP’s Release 15, this refers to the initially finalized version of the global 5G standard. 3GPP continues to hold meetings to advance its standards; there were seven separate 4G releases that evolved LTE to “LTE-Advanced Pro” before the launch of 5G. Above: A map shows the different 5G-ready radio frequencies that are being allocated across the world. Key radio frequencies and concepts Hz/MHz/GHz Short for “hertz,” “megahertz,” and “gigahertz,” these terms all refer to the number of times something changes in one second. 1Hz is one time per second, 1MHz is a million times a second, and 1GHz is a billion times a second — generally, the higher the number, the faster (and more complicated) something is. Millimeter wave / 28GHz Often abbreviated “mmWave,” millimeter waves are ultra-high frequency radio waves in the 24GHz to 300GHz range, and are being brought to phones for the first time with 5G. Current 5G phones focus on the 28GHz band. These radio waves generally travel reliably for only short distances (around 1,000 feet), but can hold a lot of data — currently 6 gigabits per second. Sub-6GHz Referring broadly to radio signals in the 3.3GHz to 6GHz range, this wide swath of radio spectrum has become the sweet spot for early 5G in many countries — but not the United States (yet). Sub-6GHz radio waves can travel further than mmWave, and thus don’t require as many cell towers, but only offer around 1/3 the bandwidth. 600MHz and 2.5GHz Pre-5G cellular standards have used lower radio frequencies between 600MHz and 2.5GHz for data. Some carriers, including Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States, are already working to bring 5G to these frequencies, which are able to travel even further than sub-6GHz and mmWave radio signals, but with noticeably slower data speeds. 20MHz vs. 100Mhz (to 800Mhz) bandwidth Picture each of the radio frequency bands above as a separate highway for cars full of data. On 4G networks, each user’s phone may receive data in small 20MHz chunks akin to one car on a single highway lane. New 5G networks let devices receive data in 100MHz or 200MHz chunks, akin to five to ten cars linked together, with ultra-wide 800MHz highways to accommodate more cars at once. Above: Vodacom points out its 5G network’s current 706Mbps download speed and 9-millisecond latency. Key speed concepts Bandwidth Put simply, the quantity of data sent or received in a second, as commonly measured in Mbps or Gbps. Mbps Megabits per second, the nearly universal measure of wireless network speed until now. While 4G networks today deliver under 30Mbps average download speeds — with peaks of 150Mbps in some areas — 5G networks are expected to start at 300Mbps, with typical speeds in the 600 to 800Mbps range. Gbps Gigabits per second, or 1,000 megabits per second. Early 5G networks are promising peak speeds between 1 and 6Gbps, which is to say roughly 10 times the best speeds of current 4G networks, though the actual line is blurrier than that. Mb versus MB Note that a lower-case “b” refers to bits, while an upper-case “B” refers to bytes. There are eight bits in a byte. For marketing reasons, data speeds these days are generally measured in “bits,” even though file sizes are measured in bytes, which confusingly means that a 10MB file will take 8 seconds to transfer at a data rate of 10Mb per second. Latency A network’s responsiveness to user requests, as measured in milliseconds (ms). 4G networks typically have 20-70ms of latency, roughly one-half or one-third the latency of 3G networks. 5G networks hope to achieve human-imperceptible single-digit latency (in the sub-10ms to sub-1ms range), with the specific latency rate depending on the connected device application. Millisecond One thousandth of a second. Abbreviated “ms.” Above: Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon addresses media and analysts at 5G Day on February 7, 2018, spotlighting the company’s dynamic radio tuning hardware. Key 5G enabling technologies Carrier aggregation Think of the FM radio in a car, and a single channel like “88.1.” If your radio tunes the channel perfectly, it can pick up a single, clear audio signal — let’s say it’s just a voice, singing a song. Carrier aggregation enables a radio to simultaneously tune the equivalent of 88.1, 88.2, and 88.3 at once, overlapping the voice channel with a guitar channel and a drum channel in something known as “channel bonding.” 5G supports aggregation of up to 16 channels at once, including mixes of separate 4G and 5G frequencies. MIMO and massive MIMO Multiple-input, multiple-output antenna systems coordinate two or four antennas at a time to simultaneously send data over the same radio channel, increasing data speeds. A phone might have a 4×2 MIMO system with 4 receiving (downloading) antennas and 2 transmitting (uploading) antennas, with up to an 8×8 array for 5G. To address multiple customers at once, new cell towers will include “massive” 128-antenna arrays with 64 receiving and 64 transmitting antennas. QAM Though the phrase “Quadrature Amplitude Modulation” doesn’t roll off the tongue, QAM is a technology that packs additional data signals into radio waves, enabling each wave to send multiple blocks of data simultaneously. Rather than dividing each radio wave into 16 data points (16-QAM), 5G starts by packing even more data into the same wave using 64-QAM or 256-QAM. Even higher QAMs are already possible. Above: IBM’s 7-nanometer chip has circuits that are 1,400 times smaller than a human hair. 5G chip-making technologies Nanometer (nm) A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter. When making chips, the smaller the nanometer manufacturing process, the smaller the key components (transistors) can be, enabling chips to pack more components into tinier housings. Early semiconductors used a 10 micrometer process, which was 1,000 times larger than the 10 nanometer process used in early 5G chips. 10-nanometer chip Early 5G chips have been built on the 10-nanometer process, which was considered to be state-of-the-art in 2017 but is currently giving way to a smaller 7-nanometer process. 7-nanometer chip As of late 2018, this is the current state of the art in tiny chip manufacturing, with only one foundry (TSMC) capable of mass-manufacturing chips; Samsung will soon catch up. 5G modem chips built with this process should run cooler and with less power consumption than 10-nanometer equivalents. Varied 5G goals eMBB At first, 5G will most commonly be used for “enhanced mobile broadband,” specifically higher data bandwidth with improved but not peak latency (faster responsiveness) compared with 4G. 5G bandwidth will eventually get up to 20Gbps, with a guaranteed minimum of 100Mbps, and 5G networks will support 10,000 times the traffic of 4G networks. mMTC 5G is also designed to support Massive Machine Type Communications, a way to bring billions of tiny connected devices and sensors online. The 5G standard supports an insane density of up to 1 million devices in a 0.38 square mile (or one square kilometer) area, with long range, low data rate radio signaling that can deliver 10-year battery life. URLLC Pushing 5G for purposes beyond 4G, the Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications specification is designed for specific 5G use cases such as full car automation, factory automation, and remote-controlled surgery where reliability and responsiveness are mandatory. A 5G network will respond to URLLC requests by delivering data so quickly and reliably that responsiveness will be imperceptibly fast — 5ms end-to-end latency — and transmission errors will be lower than 1 packet loss in 100,000 packets. But bandwidth will be limited to under 10Mbps. Fourth Industrial Revolution Many proponents of 5G have said that it will bring about a “fourth industrial revolution,” following three prior major steps forward for production: The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam for power, mechanizing production. The Second Industrial Revolution used electricity for power, creating mass production. The Third Industrial Revolution used electronics and computers to automate production. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will use 5G networks and devices to enable wireless remote control and coordination of production from a distance. eMBB (high-bandwidth and holographic communications), mMTC (large-scale remote monitoring), and URLLC (control with immediate responsiveness) will be key enablers. Summary As everything above suggests, “5G” isn’t a simple, fixed concept, but rather a large collection of ideas designed to improve over time. Just like 4G, where users saw speed and other benefits from updating phones every couple of years, 5G will go through a similar evolution over the next decade — and then, most likely, become the support system for 6G networks. If all goes to plan, phones will only be a fraction of 5G devices: In the foreseeable future, virtually everything will be wirelessly connected. If you’ve read everything above, you’ll be well along the path to understanding the vast potential of 5G, as well as some of the key areas where it’s likely to face challenges over the next year or two of early rollouts. Stay tuned to VentureBeat for the latest 5G developments, as we’ll be reporting on them as they happen. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G debuts with a 6.7-inch screen and 3D cameras | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/20/samsungs-galaxy-s10-5g-debuts-with-a-6-7-inch-screen-and-3d-cameras"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G debuts with a 6.7-inch screen and 3D cameras Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Advance leaks revealed most of the new Galaxy S10 lineup before Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event today, but one version — the Galaxy S10 5G — is decidedly unlike the others. It’s a little larger, considerably more powerful, and arriving later than the rest: late in the first half of 2019, which is to say June, several months after the other S10 models. As its name suggests, the Galaxy S10 5G is the only version of the S10 with integrated support for next-generation 5G cellular networks, which are currently in embryonic states in the United States and South Korea. Samsung says that the S10 5G will support both millimeter wave (28GHz and 39GHz) and sub-6GHz 5G frequencies, but it’s unclear how its 5G and 4G performance will actually differ: The company is promising up to 2Gbps download and 150Mbps upload speeds even in the 4G-only versions of the S10. The Galaxy S10 5G will debut in the United States exclusively for Verizon Wireless, then become available to other U.S. carriers in summer. In addition to AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, Samsung says it will be offered on Spectrum Mobile’s and Xfinity Mobile’s shared networks, which have not yet announced 5G plans. Because this model has to support Verizon’s high-speed, low-latency millimeter wave 5G network — and include the complex Qualcomm X50 modem and antennas required to connect to it — it’s no surprise that it’s physically bigger than all of the other Galaxy S10 phones revealed today. But it’s only a little larger in each dimension than the Galaxy S10+, measuring 77.1mm wide by 162.6mm tall by 7.94mm thick, which is 3 millimeters wider, 5 millimeters taller, and 0.14mm thicker. The 5G version includes a 6.7-inch Infinity-O screen, up from the 6.4-inch display on the S10+, with a pixel density of 505ppi. Like the other S10 models, the screen is a new dynamic AMOLED with HDR10+ support, high color accuracy, and up to 1200 nits of brightness. It also has a relatively huge 4,500mAh battery inside, with 29 percent more capacity than last year’s S9+, and roughly 10 percent more than this year’s S10+. To keep it from spending ages on a charger, it will support super fast 25-watt charging. While that big battery might suggest that the S10 5G will offer extended run times, the reality is that 5G phones will be simultaneously connected to 4G and 5G networks — initially using separate modems and antennas — which will drain power more quickly than 4G models. Though most of the other internal components will be identical to the other S10 models, the S10 5G’s larger screen will consume more energy. You’ll be able to tell the 5G version of the S10 apart from its lower-end brethren in two ways. It will have a 5G logo on the back, as well as a line of four rear cameras, up from three rear cameras on the S10+. The S10 5G will share the S10’s rear 0.5X to 2X optical zoom range, thanks to the same array of three total 16MP ultrawide, 12MP telephoto, and 12MP wide-angle cameras, plus its front 10MP selfie camera. But Samsung is giving the S10 5G’s front and rear cameras an extra boost: hQVGA-resolution 3D depth sensing capabilities. The rear will include a “time of flight” depth sensor that could be used to scan objects and people with the right software, while the front will be more like the iPhone X series’ TrueDepth camera, using 3D depth rather than RGB depth sensing to offer live photo and video background blurring, as well as AR effects. Rumors that the 5G model might come only in a 12GB RAM/1TB storage capacity model turned out to be inaccurate. While the S10+ will be optionally available with that extra RAM and capacity, the S10 5G will come in a 256GB model with 8GB of RAM, and won’t include a micro SD slot for storage expansion. Pricing is not yet available, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see it top $1,000 in the United States. Most of the S10 5G’s other hardware will be identical to the other versions of the S10. In addition to using an in-screen ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, it will include Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 6, Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 support, and either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or Exynos processor, depending on the market. Either processor will be octa-core, with the former using a 7-nanometer process to offer a 1.7GHz to 2.8GHz range of speeds, and the latter a 8nm processor with a 1.9GHz to 2.7GHz range — faster at the low end, slower at peak. Following the introduction of the tablet-phone hybrid Galaxy Fold , the Galaxy S10 5G is Samsung’s second confirmed phone to include 5G support. AT&T has said that it will offer two different Samsung 5G phones in 2019, the first in the “ first half of 2019 ” or “spring,” and the second during the third quarter, though only the latter will support both AT&T’s 5G and 5G+ networks. While AT&T could be referring to the Fold and S10 5G, Samsung could also be readying a Galaxy Note 10 with a higher price point and larger screen size than last year’s Note 9. Updated at 12:52 p.m. Pacific: Samsung said in a separate announcement that eight carriers in six European countries will also support the device’s 5G connectivity, namely: Deutsche Telekom (Germany) EE (UK) Orange (France) Sunrise (Switzerland) Swisscom (Switzerland) TIM (Italy) Vodafone (UK) Telefonica (Spain) Most of the European carriers have yet to actually announce live 5G service in their countries, but will likely provide more substantial timelines for their rollouts at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"From U.S. to South Korea, early mobile 5G is only inconsistently fast | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/05/from-u-s-to-south-korea-early-mobile-5g-is-only-inconsistently-fast"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages From U.S. to South Korea, early mobile 5G is only inconsistently fast Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg announces Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G is coming first to his 5G network. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. It may be only a day — or three , or 105 — into the mobile 5G experience, but there’s already a consensus between early U.S. and South Korean 5G smartphone adopters: When 5G works, it’s mighty fast, but users shouldn’t actually expect it to work consistently quite yet. On a positive note, testers in both countries indeed saw faster 5G speeds than what users get today on the same carriers’ 4G networks. In the 5G-heavy city of Seoul, Nikkei reported an indoor Samsung Galaxy S10 5G speed of 193Mbps, around four times faster than a Galaxy S9’s 4G speed of 47Mbps, with an average outdoor 5G speed of 430Mbps. Similarly, U.S. testers of Verizon’s new 5G network in Chicago such as Cnet saw top 5G speeds upwards of 630Mbps, well above the carrier’s sub-100Mbps 4G average in the city. The problem was that testers in both countries described disappointing overall experiences with network connectivity. Nikkei noted that SK Telecom’s 5G signal in Seoul cut out frequently — upwards of 30% of the time — while not delivering anything close to the 2.7Gbps peaks the carrier advertised for hybrid 4G-5G service prior to launch. It’s noteworthy that the South Korean 5G networks and phones all presently use so-called “sub-6GHz” wireless technology, not millimeter wave, a higher frequency that was expected to suffer service drop-offs indoors, yet still fell short. In Chicago, where Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Network uses exclusively millimeter wave hardware, Cnet found that the 5G signal on Motorola’s Moto Z3 with a 5G Moto Mod sometimes flickered down to 4G, and at times delivered real-world speeds below 72Mbps. During one test directly under a 5G small cell, the phone couldn’t get a 5G signal at all, though the tester later realized that the 5G accessory’s battery had run out — seemingly without a warning. Verizon and SK Telecom aren’t the only carriers offering mobile 5G service, but experiences are similarly spotty with rival carriers. AT&T debuted a 12-city mobile 5G network at the end of last year, but didn’t provide speed estimates at first, and has offered only limited sales of the sole 5G hotspot that connects to its network since then. In Gangnam, a southern part of Seoul, Nikkei said that LG Uplus wasn’t able to offer customers a live demonstration of its new 5G VR service because it didn’t have enough base stations to accommodate many people at once. While it would be reasonable to conclude that the early reports are damning, they’re partially attributable to all of the carriers’ rushes to be “first to 5G.” Even AT&T, which began selling its first 5G hotspot 105 days ago, was relying on preliminary standards-compliant 5G tower hardware that is still in the process of being software-upgraded for superior performance. Most of the 5G carriers have cautiously described their services as preliminary, promised steady improvements throughout 2019, and offered some form of free or discounted service to early adopters. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"U.S. DOJ approves T-Mobile-Sprint merger, states maintain antitrust suit | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/26/u-s-doj-approves-t-mobile-sprint-merger-states-maintain-antitrust-suit"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages U.S. DOJ approves T-Mobile-Sprint merger, states maintain antitrust suit Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. After a long and winding process that ultimately required signoffs from two U.S. federal agencies and the divestment of key assets, T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with rival Sprint has officially won approval from the Department of Justice, which had opposed the deal until now. The decision was announced this morning by the agency’s antitrust head Makan Delrahim, potentially setting the stage for the deal to close later this year. T-Mobile and Sprint have positioned the deal since its inception as an opportunity to create a viable third-place competitor to cellular industry leaders Verizon and AT&T, combining the third- and fourth-place carriers’ assets to achieve a similar scale. After the deal closes, the “New T-Mobile” will nearly match its historically larger rivals with a base of 100 million customers, and hold national radio spectrum capable of delivering 5G cellular service on low, mid, and high frequencies. The Federal Communications Commission signaled its approval of the merger in May, following commitments from the companies to roll out 5G service to 97% of the U.S. population within three years while preserving its 4G price plans. But the Justice Department reportedly opposed the merger , suggesting that it would reduce competition below the top three carriers, an issue that might affect T-Mobile’s and Sprint’s budget-conscious prepaid brands Boost Mobile and Metro (formerly MetroPCS). To make the deal viable, the DOJ insisted that the companies divest Sprint’s prepaid business, including Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, along with 20,000 cell sites, related spectrum, and retail stores that will enable another carrier to become a viable fourth-place national competitor. In a press release announcing the news, Sprint specified that it will give up its low-band 800MHz spectrum, which is similar to the long-reaching 600MHz spectrum T-Mobile will use to establish national 5G service. Dish Network, a satellite TV provider that has teetered on the edge of entering the cellular market for years, agreed this week to buy those assets and seven years of access to T-Mobile’s network in exchange for $5 billion and a promise not to sell the new holdings to another company for three years. T-Mobile will also give Dish the option to take on cell site and retail leases it decommissions following the merger. Combined with Sprint’s 800MHz spectrum, Dish’s own millimeter wave spectrum holdings could enable it to offer a viable combination of slow, wide-reaching 5G and fast, location-specific 5G, akin to T-Mobile’s own strategy. In its own press release , Dish said that it has agreed to deploy a 5G network capable of serving 70% of the U.S. population by June 2023, and that it will be acquiring 14MHz of Sprint’s nationwide 800MHz spectrum, adding to its own 600MHz, 700MHz, and 1.9GHz to 2.2GHz holdings. Notably, however, it says the 800MHz “spectrum purchase is expected to be completed three years after the closing of the acquisition of the prepaid businesses,” which suggests that it might rely heavily on T-Mobile’s network for the foreseeable future. Dish also agreed to begin transitioning Sprint’s prepaid customers from the “Sprint legacy network” to the “New T-Mobile network,” activating all of its new wireless customers on the latter. The company expects to serve around 9.3 million customers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, taking on 400 Sprint employees to support over 7,500 independent and company-owned retail outlets. “Today’s settlement will provide Dish with the assets and transitional services required to become a facilities-based mobile network operator that can provide a full range of mobile wireless services nationwide,” Delrahim said. “I want to thank our state partners for joining us in this settlement. In crafting this remedy, we are also mindful of the significant commitments T-Mobile, Sprint, and Dish have made to the Federal Communications Commission.” Despite surviving the federal approval gauntlet, T-Mobile and Sprint still face antitrust claims from state attorneys general. Following its successful brokering of the Dish Network divestment deal, the Justice Department reportedly sought to convince a group of states to drop a lawsuit filed in mid-June to block the merger. Thirteen attorneys general representing California, the District of Columbia, New York, and other states had claimed that the deal would hurt competition and drive up cellular prices — issues that the DOJ’s antitrust review was explicitly designed to address and resolve. As of now, five state attorneys general have signed onto the DOJ deal, which is interestingly being filed today as a second formal antitrust lawsuit against the carriers, alongside a DOJ-authorized settlement agreement that requires court approval. That agreement could conceivably win over additional states as the lawsuit moves towards court approval. For the time being, the prior state lawsuit also remains pending, and may not be resolved by year’s end: It’s currently scheduled to go to trial in October, but may be delayed until December due to today’s changes in the merger’s structure. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Teardowns reveal Qualcomm 5G chips beat Huawei's on size and efficiency | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/12/teardowns-reveal-qualcomm-5g-chips-beat-huaweis-on-size-and-efficiency"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Teardowns reveal Qualcomm 5G chips beat Huawei’s on size and efficiency Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. While an iFixit teardown of Huawei’s Mate 20X suggested that the company’s first 5G smartphone was using fairly large, hot-running components to compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips , the engineering differences between the 5G rivals are now becoming clearer thanks to teardowns performed by IHS Markit. In a report released today, the research firm says it made some interesting discoveries after disassembling six early 5G smartphones: Based on chip size, system design, and memory, Huawei rushed an comparatively inefficient solution to market, resulting in a device that’s larger, more expensive, and less energy efficient than it could have been. Huawei made a fairly big deal about its use of self-made processors in its 5G phones, noting that it was including both a Kirin 980 system-on-chip and a Balong 5000 5G modem , the latter billed as the first commercial multimode 5G/4G/3G/2G chip. In theory, that modem should have given the Mate 20X an advantage over devices with early Snapdragon chips, but as IHS notes, the Kirin 980 has its own 4G/3G/2G modem inside, which wound up “unused and unnecessary” inside the phone, increasing its cost, battery usage, and PCB footprint. The space savings from a smaller SoC wouldn’t have been trivial, and was compounded by related component inefficiencies: a Huawei modem die size 50% larger than Qualcomm’s first-generation X50 modem , a “surprisingly large” 3GB of supporting memory just for the modem, and a lack of support for millimeter wave 5G networks. By comparison, IHS principal analyst Wayne Lam told VentureBeat, Samsung’s Exynos 5100 modem die size is “almost exactly the same as the X50.” The report describes Huawei’s design choices as “far from ideal,” noting that they’re “highlighting the challenges of early 5G technology.” Despite those issues, IHS noted that Huawei’s reliance on one 5G/4G/3G/2G modem rather than two separate 5G and 4G/3G/2G modems is the way forward, as it enables convergence of both the modem and related parts such as radio-tuning RF front ends and radio antennas. The Mate 20X has separate 4G and 5G radio tuners, but over time, those parts will become more integrated as well, resulting in greater power efficiency. Qualcomm is expected to be the only real alternative for carriers and OEMs interested in supporting millimeter wave 5G, as it’s already offering complete modem-to-antenna designs; its only multi-vendor rival, MediaTek, has focused on non-millimeter wave parts. IHS expects that the next step — integration of 5G/4G/3G/2G multimode modems directly inside smartphone SoC processors — will take place in 2020, eliminating the need for a separate modem while “significantly” cutting related component costs by eliminating the need for separate modem RAM and power management chips. MediaTek has already announced such a chip for 2020 devices as the 5G SoC , minus millimeter wave, but competitors will likely include a more integrated RF front end with full support for both millimeter wave and sub-6GHz 5G, enabling “better, cheaper, and faster 5G smartphones” to come to market over the next year. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"In 7th deal in seven months, Zynga acquires mobile game company Newtoy | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2010/12/02/zynga-acquires-mobile-game-company-newtoy"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages In 7th deal in seven months, Zynga acquires mobile game company Newtoy Dean Takahashi Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Zynga said moments ago that it has acquired Texas-based mobile game company Newtoy, the maker of games such as Words with Friends on the iPhone. The price was not disclosed. The move shows that Zynga, which is big on Facebook, is serious about becoming a big presence in mobile games too. Five months ago, Zynga launched FarmVille on the iPhone, and the game has since been downloaded more than 7 million times. Overall, Zynga mobile games have been downloaded 10 million times. That’s small for Zynga, and the company wants its mobile side to grow faster. The San Francisco company has become the largest social game company, with more than 215 million monthly active users playing its games, mostly on Facebook. Earlier this week, it announced a groundbreaking deal with American Express , which will let its cardholders buy Zynga virtual goods with their frequent-purchase rewards. David Ko, senior vice president for mobile games at Zynga , said in a conference call that the company’s goal is to take its games to every platform so users can play anytime, anywhere. So far, the company has acquired seven companies in seven months, but none were as focused on mobile as Newtoy. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! McKinney, Texas-based Newtoy will become the Zynga With Friends studio, headed by co-founders of Newtoy, brothers Paul and David Bettner. Paul Bettner will become general manager of the studio while David Bettner will become director. Words with Friends, a Scrabble-like game for the mobile market, has been downloaded more than 12 million times to date. Other big titles are Chess with Friends and We Rule. Newtoy has 23 employees and was founded in 2008. The Bettner brothers had previously made big-budget PC and console games, including Age of Empires and Halo Wars. Ko said Zynga would try to increase downloads for Newtoy titles through cross promotion with other Zynga games. The acquisition has also set up an interesting competition. In October, Japan’s DeNA acquired iPhone game maker Ngmoco for $403 million. That price was something like 13 times revenues — a very high price. But DeNA is on a billion-dollar run rate with its business on mobile phones in Japan, and it is intent on expanding to Western markets for social mobile games. Zynga has made global expansion a big priority as it searches for ways to become less dependent on Facebook. The company has to diversify its risks and expand to new markets. A couple of weeks ago, the company announced that it would launch its newest game, CityVille , in five different languages. CityVille went live last night. Zynga is a privately held company with more than 1,300 employees. It has seen extremely fast growth in nearly four years. The company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from major investors such as DST, SoftBank, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Secondary trading on SharesPost (where employees sell their stock to cash out early) pegs Zynga’s value at $5.6 billion. Revenue for 2010 is expected to surpass $500 million, according to Inside Network. Roughly 10 million Americans play FarmVille every day. But the dependency on Facebook is a big risk for Zynga. In any given week, Zynga can lose 10 million users or gain that many. The company really took off in June, 2009, when it launched FarmVille, a casual farm simulation that users play for minutes a day. The players have been fickle; FarmVille’s audience has shrunk from 83 million monthly unique visitors earlier this year to 53.7 million. Along the way, Zynga has been marketing its other games to FarmVille players. So even if those players stop playing FarmVille, they may move on to other Zynga games. The game is available for free, but users pay real money for virtual goods such as tractor fuel. The company has expanded to Japan, but it will be interesting to watch if it can come out on top there. There are a lot of big Japanese mobile social game companies, such as DeNA, which have entrenched positions. U.S. rivals such as CrowdStar are also moving into the Japanese market. To ensure success, Zynga raised money from SoftBank and created a joint venture, Zynga Japan , to accelerate its entry into the market. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Castle Crashers breaks through to Xbox One next week -- here's how to get it for free | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2015/09/04/castle-crashers-breaks-through-to-xbox-one-next-week-heres-how-to-get-it-for-free"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Castle Crashers breaks through to Xbox One next week — here’s how to get it for free Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The incredible animation and art of Castle Crashers gets an upgrade for Xbox One. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. The last generation of consoles was known for introducing smaller, downloadable games to console players, and one of the most successful Xbox Live Arcade releases on Xbox 360 is getting an upgrade to the newer Microsoft machine. Castle Crashers Remastered is coming to Xbox One on September 9 for $15, according to developer The Behemoth. The studio sold millions of copies of Castle Crashers, which is a four-player action-adventure beat-’em-up, on the Xbox 360 and eventually PC as well. So it makes sense that the company would want to rerelease its most popular game so far — especially considering the original came out seven years ago. Of course, the success of Castle Crashers means that you likely already own the game for Xbox 360 — well, if that’s the case, then you’ll actually get the Remastered version on Xbox One for free. The only requirements are that you need to have an active Xbox Live Gold account and you need to download the game before September 20. If you own the original for Xbox 360, have Xbox Live Gold, but wait until September 21? At that point, you’ll have to pay human dollars to get the Remastered game on Xbox One. But it will only cost you $5 instead of $15 or you could play the original, non-remastered version on your Xbox One since The Behemoth has promised backward compatibility. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Developer The Behemoth revealed Castle Crashers Remastered earlier this year, but today’s announcement included some new details about what exactly about the game is “remastered.” Here are some of the most notably improvements: Improved frame rate to 60 FPS instead of 30 FPS. New multiplayer mode. Higher-resolution textures. Better performance in the main game and online. Better matchmaking. I love me some Castle Crashers, so I’ll have my Xbox One booted up on September 9 to get in on this action. Here’s to rocket-poop-propelled deer! GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Updated Nintendo Switch uses 40% less energy | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/21/new-nintendo-switch-energy-efficient"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Updated Nintendo Switch uses 40% less energy Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Nintendo Switch is riding high. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Nintendo is launching the Switch Lite on September 20, but it has already released an updated version of the original model that you can buy now. So what improvements is this stealthy upgrade hiding? Well, as Nintendo promised, it all comes down to battery life. And the company was able to achieve that by creating a Nintendo Switch that is more energy efficient. The original Switch had a battery life of 2.5 hours-to-6 hours. That might sound dismal, but it was actually right in line with other handhelds. Switch Lite, meanwhile, is going to get 3 hours-to-7 hours, according to Nintendo. And the updated larger Switch? It’s getting 4.5-to-9 hours of battery life. So how did Nintendo accomplish this? Well, the system is using much less energy now. In a power-draw test, Digital Foundry found that the system is using around 40%-to-50% less energy during similar gaming scenes. Where the original model often required 11-to-14 watts to run certain games, the new Switch is only sipping around 6-to-9 watts. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! These numbers come from docked mode because Digital Foundry is testing using a watt meter between the outlet and the Switch power brick. But you should expect to see a similar ratio in handheld. How is the new Nintendo Switch using less energy? Nintendo and its hardware partner Nvidia have made a number of improvements that are all contributing to better efficiency. But everything stems out from the smaller Tegra X1 processor. Nvidia originally used a 20nm process to create its X1. Put simply, that means that the transistors inside the chip are about 20nm in size. Now, however, Nvidia is using a 16nm process to build the X1. And as transistors get smaller, they require less power and generate less heat to flip them. That is crucial when you are dealing with billions of transistors updating dozens of times per second. So the chip itself is more efficient, but that has a ripple effect throughout the entire system. You need less power to run the same games. And the transistors are generating less heat, so you don’t need to run the motorized cooling fan quite as much. Potentially, you could make the heatsync smaller to have more room for a larger battery (the Switch does not do this). Wait, does this mean it could run games faster? If you’re unfamiliar with chips and how they work, you may be reading all this and having a realization. If The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can run just as well on the updated X1 chip using less power, what would happen if it used the same amount of energy? Wouldn’t the game run better? Yes. Most of the performance gains we see out of GPUs and CPUs comes down to manufacturers finding ways to more efficiently use the same amount of wattage. But Nintendo is not doing that with this Switch. Again, the company is focusing all of its efforts in this revision on the battery life. And that is paying off. The Switch is now one of the longest-lasting portable devices ever made. Check it out: Nintendo Switch OG: 2.5 hours-to-6 hours Nintendo 3DS: 3 hours-to-5 hours New Nintendo 3DS: 3.5 hours-to-6 hours New Nintendo 3DS XL: 3.5 hours-to-7 hours PlayStation Vita: 3 hours-to-5 hours “New” Nintendo Switch: 4.5 hours-to-9 hours Switch lite: 3 hours-to-7 hours This may mean that future Switch revisions have no where to go but better performance and visuals. Nvidia is constantly improving the efficiency of its GPUs. Its performance-per-watt is significantly ahead of the competition. But is Nintendo really going to just bump up the battery life again? When you are getting 4.5 hours-to-9 hours already, it might make more sense for a 12nm process ( something Nvidia is already using on its desktop and server graphics cards ) would better serve a Switch Pro. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Blockchain is finally becoming the next-gen database of choice | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/27/blockchain-is-finally-becoming-the-next-gen-database-of-choice"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest Blockchain is finally becoming the next-gen database of choice Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. When I think of why we need a blockchain , I think of one guy. There was a dev we had hired to build a few important parts of our product for us. A few years previously, in another life, he had been hosting his own servers and one of them crashed. He was telling me this with tears in his eyes: The database, a massive mess full of customer data, point-of-sale info, and inventory information had gone up in smoke. The backups were hosed, as well. And there was no way to rewind the data. He spent almost 24 hours in an air-conditioned server room, a monitor attached to the rack and a keyboard on his knees, trying to resurrect it. He was partially successful, but the real question was whether the data was accurate. Whether the transactions all matched up, whether he would keep his job in the morning. Everything turned out fine and, since then, it has gotten a lot easier to do his job. Cloud replaced servers while also being cheaper and more reliable. His lingering fear never went away though. Things are better, but he can’t be 100% sure things will never go sideways again. He believes, though, that there’s a stronger safety net available now than we’ve had before: blockchain. Benefits like disaster recovery , security, availability, and automation are all baked into blockchain. The serverless architecture of public blockchains makes them powerful proofs of how blockchain can deliver on enterprise-grade reliability for business databases. The costs are also not much higher: Blockchain’s ability to instantly replicate may even allow you to safely get away with the same (or even less) redundancy compared to a traditional database. Perhaps the biggest advantage? Smart contracts will regulate changes, so a new hire can’t throw a wrench into everything — the blockchain will protect you from changes that could compromise data or stability. In short, a blockchain is a server that can’t crash and a database that can’t be corrupted — all in one easy to deploy package. To be clear, blockchain isn’t perfectly suited to solve certain data problems, the same way that email isn’t suited for instant messaging. Big data analytics is crazy expensive to replicate, and unless you are directly monetizing the data (like selling ads), it is not worth the cost to shoehorn blockchain into an analytical workload. Blockchains are best for core business transactional data, like your account balance. They are absolutely mission-critical when it comes to account data and ownership records, the loss of which would be an existential threat to a company. A company like Walmart can probably survive the loss of all website traffic data, but it would be very much at risk if it lost its inventory ledger. Business continuity is a major concern for enterprise players as customers demand nothing less than always-on availability. As businesses grow though, the pains of migrating databases and updating systems can lead to massive fumbles. According to Boston Computing Network’s research, 60 percent of companies that lose their data will shut down within six months of the disaster. There exists an entire industry of SysOps, DevOps, and others who monitor code pushes and database migrations, giving humans plenty of chances to foul up a launch. So blockchain represents a big opportunity for businesses to move quickly while keeping their operations secure. Today, it isn’t just about the speed of transactions, it’s also about verifying and securing those transactions. That’s what has always been missing in system management and is something that anyone from our beleaguered dev to the teams that run databases for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are learning. Blockchain tech is the evolution of the database. Smart contracts enforce business rules, while databases are backed up and verified continuously. All of the infrastructure and computational needs are calculated before deployment, and embedded rules ensure compliance from day one onward. In fact, it looks a lot like the next generation of what APIs look like. You’re encapsulating processes, tying them together with requests for data, and expecting results. Right now, the business logic is processed on central servers of some kind. What’s innovative with blockchain is that you can take that logic, wrapped as a smart contract, and run it on your own. It still adheres to the rules set by the people who created it, and it must interact as expected. Now, imagine databases on blockchain using these same robust rules. Robust databases that are unkillable. You don’t have to worry about your main server going down. Replication is built-in. Immutable laws exist that you can’t lose or change. If you’re on a public blockchain, this is as robust as possible, and you don’t have to pay for any servers. With a public blockchain, your data is stored cryptographically by the blockchain’s miners all around the world. If you’re on a private blockchain, you may run several replicated systems. Or, you can own all the nodes. You can also use blockchain on cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The key is that blockchain is built to be replicated, again and again. Traditional databases must be migrated in specific, expensive ways under certain conditions to guard against data loss. Ultimately, this is where blockchain really proves its worth: combining the basic elements of security, robustness, replication, and business logic all in its “DNA.” Smart contracts are safe, distributed, and secure. Your entire dataset is more secure this way, too. This is why blockchain promises to be the next-generation database. Will Martino is Founder and CEO of Kadena. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Touring Karts brings an eccentric mix of weapons and drinks to VR racing | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/23/touring-karts-brings-an-eccentric-mix-of-weapons-and-drinks-to-vr-racing"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Touring Karts brings an eccentric mix of weapons and drinks to VR racing Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. With the recent releases of Team Sonic Racing and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled , you’re likely in the mood to try even more kart racing. Ivanovich Games has an eccentric new option for you, Touring Karts , which lets you fire powerful weapons at your enemies and even drink tasty beverages as you race around the track. Coming in late 2019 to PlayStation VR, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus, and Vive platforms, Touring Karts features 22 separate tracks, 45 power-ups, and 30 different karts. The karts themselves are modeled after real F1 designs, and you can choose to play with national teams from all over the world. It will include both online and story modes, and there are several different view options, depending on your preference. These include a dizzy-free option sitting in an arcade cabinet, first-person, room-scale, or third-person views. Several control options are available, as well, including steering wheels, handheld controllers, gamepads, and the 3dRudder accessory. Touring Karts will support cross-platform play, but that’s not the only thing you can mix up. You can combine the various power-ups to create all-new tools during races. Merging a banana peel with a bazooka will create a banana launcher, which is perfect for disrupting distant opponents. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Touring Karts will also be available in non-VR, VR Arcade , and mobile versions , and the VR release is far from the first VR kart game. VR Karts has been available for more than four years, but its more relaxed and simple approach to racing stands in stark contrast to Touring Karts’ all-out insanity. This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2019 GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Homelessness amid prosperity in Los Angeles' tech boom | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/27/prosperity-and-homelessness-in-los-angeles-tech-boom"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Homelessness amid prosperity in Los Angeles’ tech boom Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Los Angeles boasts huge pockets of prosperity in places like Santa Monica, Hollywood, and nearby Orange County. Lots of tech companies are sprouting up in these areas, and the region is a haven for games and esports. But it also has a staggering number of homeless people. I took a video of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles and was stunned by the number of tents for the homeless crammed into a relatively small area. I saw it on the way to Two Bit Circus, a micro-amusement park in a fairly prosperous neighborhood. Lots of high-rise condos and other office buildings are going up downtown; in fact, Los Angeles hasn’t seen so much construction since the 1920s. But the city clearly still has a huge deficit when it comes to solutions to homelessness. In June 2018, the Los Angeles Housing Authority reported there were more than 53,000 homeless individuals in Los Angeles County. That number decline 3% last year, but it is still a pretty shocking statistic. For context, there are 58 billionaires in Los Angeles. The Bay Area isn’t much different, with 7,500 homeless currently on the streets in San Francisco and 80 billionaires in the region. While I often write about the prosperous people and cool technologies of both San Francisco and Los Angeles, I can’t help but notice how many people are left behind in this tech boom. I hope we can do something about this. There are people trying. It is not a problem that is easily solved, but we need to tackle it. Scenes like this video show that not everything is paradise in the world’s greatest democracy. It is so hard to see. And so easy to turn away. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Ori and the Blind Forest makes momma Metroid super-proud | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2015/03/09/ori-and-the-blind-forest-makes-momma-metroid-super-proud"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Review Ori and the Blind Forest makes momma Metroid super-proud Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Ironically, the game makes me incredibly happy to not be blind. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Check out our Reviews Vault for past game reviews. Think about some of the most beautiful games you’ve ever played. You probably remember the likes of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Okami, and Journey. Add Ori and the Blind Forest to that list. Ori is a new adventure-platformer (a genre often called “Metroidvania” by fans, named so because of the Metroid and Castlevania series that popularized it) that comes out on March 11 for Xbox One and PC. You can see just from the screenshots how good it looks, but it also plays like a masterpiece. Above: Drool. What you’ll like A living cartoon Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Similar to the 2D sidescroller Rayman Legends, Ori looks like a playable animated movie. But while Rayman took more inspiration from Saturday morning cartoons, Ori is more like something from a high-end animation studio like Disney or Studio Ghibli. Each frame is a work of art. All of the elements — the characters, the backgrounds, the foregrounds, and the water and energy effects — work together to create one of the best-looking games ever made. Tight design Ori takes a lot of gameplay inspiration from Super Metroid. You explore a nonlinear 2D world while collecting power-ups that help you access new areas on the map. Of course, we’ve seen plenty of other games try to ape Super Metroid’s style, but Ori manages it as well as or better than anyone. Each area offers unique challenges that mix elements of action, platforming, and puzzle-solving. And, just like with Metroid, Ori rewards the astute and curious player with extra items. Now, I’ve been comparing Ori to a lot of other things, but it has plenty of its own good ideas. My favorite is the Soul Link, which saves your game and shows you a skill tree with unlockable perks (which you can unlock with experience earned by beating enemies and finding hidden items). If you die, you just zip back to your last Soul Link. Above: Ummmmfffffff. However, you can’t just make as many Soul Links as you want. Doing so consumes energy, which isn’t always convenient to refill. A strong, chargeable attack also uses the same energy, so creating too many Soul Links will make a lot of fights harder. This is a great idea, since it enables you save your progress just before especially tricky sections. It still makes it a gameplay system that you’re actually in control of. Ori doesn’t feel too easy because it just automatically saves your progress every two minutes. You’re in charge of that, and you’ll pay the price if you go too far without creating a Soul Link, die, and have to regain lost ground. The fun power-ups Just like any Metroidvania, Ori earns plenty of new abilities during his adventure. Some are basic, like a double-jump, and others are more interesting. My favorite is a move that helps Ori grab on to enemies and their projectiles and then launch himself from them. Not only is this great for reaching difficult heights, but you can also throw whatever you launch off of in the opposite direction, which you’ll need to do to solve all sorts of puzzles. Really, the best thing about the power-ups are how powerful they make you feel when you begin to amass a bunch of them. Unlike in Metroid, the abilities you earn in the map exclusively help Ori’s maneuverability. You can still earn plenty of offensive tricks, but you access those in a traditional Skill Tree. Instead, your new moves allow you to climb, jump, and do pretty much anything else that could help you travel the world (minus flying). Above: Mmmmmmmmm. It’s beautiful This is about more than the looks. The music is haunting just as often as it is exciting, and I still have the main theme stuck in my head. OK, I actually just beat the game like 30 minutes before starting my review, so maybe that’s not all that impressive. But trust me — it’s a good tune. The story, while minimal, is also touching, especially the opening moments that, while light on gameplay or action, do a wonderful job setting up the adventure’s tone and motivation. What you won’t like Some technical stuff While Ori mostly ran beautifully, the frame rate would occasionally drop. It wasn’t awful, but it was noticeable. Thankfully, these moments weren’t too frequent. I also had the game crash on me a couple of times, oddly at the very beginning and very end. The whole thing froze trying to load the opening cinematic, requiring me to reboot the game from the Xbox One’s dashboard. Then, after the credits rolled, the whole system crashed when I tried to press A during the start screen. Overall, not terrible places to have things die on me. Still, it was a bit concerning, and you might not be as lucky as I was. Above: Yessssssssss. Conclusion I loved every second of Ori and the Blind Forest. It’s as fun as it is pretty, which is an incredible achievement when its one of the most gorgeous games I’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever enjoyed a 2D sidescroller, you’ll definitely appreciate what developer Moon Studios has done here. If you’re a fan of Metroidvania-style games, you’ll find an experience that easily joins the ranks of Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. Score: 95/100 Ori and the Blind Forest is out for Xbox One and PC on March 11. The publisher provided us with a code of the Xbox One version for the purposes of this review. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"The terse poetry of Alexis Kennedy's Cultist Simulator card game | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/08/the-terse-poetry-of-alexis-kennedys-cultist-simulator-card-game"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages The terse poetry of Alexis Kennedy’s Cultist Simulator card game Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Most of Alexis Kennedy’s games gaze into the crystal ball of madness, and Cultist Simulator is no different. He’s best known as the founder of the indie studio Failbetter Games , where he created and wrote text-heavy titles like Fallen London and Sunless Sea. A little over a year ago, he left Failbetter to form Weather Factory, and Cultist Simulator is this studio’s first game. It’s raising funds on Kickstarter now and met its goal in a little over 12 hours. It should debut in May 2018, and it will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux. “I like making games where the player makes the kind of choices that game characters usually don’t get to make,” said Kennedy in an email. “There are plenty of horror games, but there aren’t many games where you get to establish the backstory. You’re always picking up after the rash occultist who summoned the thing. I thought: what if you were actually that occultist?” Kennedy says he left Failbetter in order to work on more experimental projects without worrying about generating the revenue needed to pay a full-time team. Since leaving, he’s worked on the Horizon Signal DLC for Paradox Interactive’s Stellaris , along with projects in partnership with BioWare’s Dragon Age team and Telltale Games. But Cultist Simulator will be the first full game that he’s releasing under the Weather Factory moniker. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! “Cultist Simulator is experimental, alright — a timer-based Doodle God-inspired narrative crafting card-based quasi-Lovecraftian occult horror life simulator? What?” said Kennedy. “Although it looks increasingly like it might actually be a commercial success, my main aim was to try out some ideas I had about choice and narrative, with total creative freedom.” I checked out a prototype of Cultist Simulator, which is free on Itch.io. The playing field is set up like digital card game version of a tarot reading. You have health, passion, reason, and funds, which are needed to execute certain actions. You can place the cards in different slots, such as Work, Dream, and Explore, and trying new combinations can effect different events. “I’ve always loved cards as a game metaphor, and my previous work keeps coming back to them,” said Kennedy. “And tarot, of course, is the ur-deck, the original source of card games. There is something about expressing all that symbolism in a card and then just letting the player deal with it that allows the designer to be terse and poetic in a way that other metaphors don’t.” As in Kennedy’s other games, atmosphere is paramount. You earn cards like Notoriety, Erudition, and Fleeting Memory, evoking abstract ideas that can be examined and somehow turned into actions. It’s replete with the sense that you’re dabbling with the unknown, and it encourages experimentation. You can choose whether you want to use reason or passion, though regardless of those decisions, you’ll still have to find a way to earn funds to stave off starvation. Even cultists have to eat, after all. Unlike Fallen London, which also uses a card system though with a much different user interface, Cultist Simulator features timers. Every minute, your funds are used up, and sometimes you have to race against the clock to stay alive. It’s an interesting decision, because a main feature of Kennedy’s work is his text, and in his previous titles, I’ve enjoyed the chance to take my time reading. His worlds are steeped in lore, often with intriguing references to faraway places and mysterious figures. Kennedy credits the final version of the interface to his freelance UI designer, Martin Nerurkar , who has a background in digital card games. He also says that the earliest prototype was actually an incremental idle game, similar to Adventure Capitalist. “But I wanted to use story and choice design elements that just wouldn’t fit in that model, and I changed it,” said Kennedy. “So that’s how the timers came in, but once they were in, I liked the constant sense of menace they brought. There’s always something running down; there’s always something running out; there’s always an opportunity to say ‘ Hell, no! ‘ and change your mind.” Though Cultist Simulator doesn’t take place in Failbetter’s world of the Underzee, it does draw from familiar symbols and themes. The art style, at least in the prototype, is also reminiscent of the Kennedy’s previous work with stark silhouettes and bold colors. “It’s completely different lore. But a lot of my motifs and obsessions have come over from Fallen London, inevitably, so there are candles and labyrinths and abominable appetites and death by water,” said Kennedy. “I tried to weed that out to begin with, and to go in more of a different direction, but I thought, bugger it, that’s what people who know my work are here for.” Unavoidably, comparisons to H.P. Lovecraft arise when discussing Kennedy’s games. After all, Fallen London is all about the horrors of the deep, prime Cthulhu stomping grounds as it were. To that end, Kennedy seems to have some mixed feelings. “I wouldn’t say I’m a Lovecraft fan exactly — I spent years insisting Fallen London wasn’t Lovecraftian — but he’s a founding father of the nation of weird fiction and I’m a citizen of that nation,” said Kennedy. “Like many other founding fathers, he was a towering figure with an inescapable shadow and a deep well of talent and some odd quirks and some moments of horrifying racism.” He says he’s been re-reading a lot of Lovecraft lately as he works on Cultist Simulator, but that’s not the only source of inspiration. “I look to [Roger Zelazny] and [Lord Dunsany] and Mary Renault and Algernon Blackwood and Tanith Lee,” said Kennedy. “The setting and the story are perilous and monstrous, rather than just nihilistic and horrifying. The tagline is ‘apocalypse and yearning ‘ — I want the player to feel that allure.” GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Founder of #MeToo on maintaining movement's values and focus after it went viral | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/30/founder-of-metoo-on-maintaining-movements-values-and-focus-after-it-went-viral"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Founder of #MeToo on maintaining movement’s values and focus after it went viral Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Tarana Burke, founder of the MeToo movement, speaking at the Bits & Pretzels conference in Munich, Germany on September 30, 2018. Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. When the #MeToo movement went viral last year after a tweet by actress Alyssa Milano, nobody was more surprised than Tarana Burke. More than a decade earlier, Burke had begun using the term as a way to help survivors of sexual assault speak up and heal. Suddenly, the work and activism she had led for years in quiet anonymity had gained a global audience that she could have never imagined. And yet, after fighting for a cause mainly aimed at African African girls and women, she saw the baton being seized by famous white women, and then watched as its intentions were distorted by the media. “This movement is being defined by the media and by the corporations,” she said. “It’s dangerous to reduce what we’ve seen in the past year as mob justice.” On Sunday, Burke arrived in Munich to deliver the keynote address at the Bits & Pretzels technology conference, which embraced the theme of diversity this year. Burke’s story of social media’s role in the movement underscores the complexities of the how such technology intersects with grassroots politics, particularly when race and gender are central factors. In describing how she reacted to #MeToo’s virality, Burke said that rather than wanting to battle over ownership, she felt the need to put the mission first. Since then, she has been trying to push the issue forward by riding its social media wave while simultaneously fighting to keep the focus on its original mission of helping sexual assault victims. Burke described herself as a “regular degular schmegular girl from the Bronx.” Her life was changed as a teenager when she read Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography that recounts the author’s experience as a victim of rape. By that time, Burke said she had already suffered two sexual assaults, and she found tremendous relief in knowing that she was not alone. As an adult and activist, she continued to hear stories from young African Americans. In 2006, she began using the phrase “Me Too” as a way to get girls and women to open up and discuss their experiences. “I did that because these girls didn’t have the words to describe the pain,” Burke said. “And you can’t heal a pain if you don’t have the words to define it.” That effort grew gradually, by word of mouth, in-person organizing, and fundraising efforts to develop more resources and educational material and services. Eventually, the organizers created a MySpace page, which shocked them by bringing in an outpouring of emails and stories. “We learned two things really quickly,” Burke said. “Social was getting ready to be [a] wave. We explained what we were doing, and people started reaching out to us and saying thank you for starting this. Can you bring this to my community? How can I be involved? And the second thing was that it confirmed that we were onto something. We knew we had something that people needed.” Still, she continued to build the movement brick by brick over the years. Then she woke up on an October morning last year to Milano’s tweet and the ensuing uproar. Initially, she was confused. “There were a flurry of Twitter messages saying ‘Congratulations!’ and ‘Is this you?’,” she said. “And I didn’t know what people were talking about. Then within a few hours, my social media pages were flooded.” Considering the impact of this new twist almost immediately caused anxiety. “I just thought, ‘The white people gonna take my stuff away from me’,” Burke said. “This was a weird thing, seeing this thing I had created for black and brown girls spread to the whole world. I watched it grow and panicked and worried about how I was going to save my work.” Her longtime friends and supporters rushed online to defend and speak up for Burke, demanding she be given credit. Watching all this play out, she came to her own decision about how to react. “I could have definitely had a fight about this,” Burke said. “I could have spent the next few weeks talking about how this is about me, me, me. But then the question came to me: Are you going to be in conflict or are you going to be in service?” So the next day, she made a video about herself and the movement, asking people to embrace the #MeToo cause. That video also went viral, and since then she’s been flooded with non-stop interview requests and been gratified to watch the movement go global. “That’s because I stuck to the vision,” she said. “I didn’t try to change the work we’d done for the last decade. I used the vision and tried to explain what #MeToo was really about. They weren’t just two words. They were two words that helped these women open up and heal.” Despite the global recognition and acclaim of the movement sparked by that hashtag, the work remains as challenging as ever, in some ways even more so. In part, there is the challenge of making sure those original communities of African American girls and women remain a vital part of the movement, and benefit from it. But perhaps an even bigger challenge for Burke is figuring out how to address the way the mission and its goals have been distorted, particularly in the media. As famous and powerful men were toppled by accusations of sexual assault, those stories increasingly became central to stories about #MeToo, which Burke says incorrectly seemed to define that as its central mission. “We’re in the midst of the backlash,” Burke said. “People say, ‘Oh, I’m so tired of hearing about #MeToo’. And that’s because they think about it all wrong. They think we’re a movement about taking down powerful men. But not only is that not sustainable, it is contrary to our values.” She continued: 12 million people engaged on the MeToo hashtag on Facebook the first day. Every single one of those hashtags is a human being. And every one of them has a story about sexual violence. What the media has done is pivot away from them. But we’re focused on the survivors of sexual violence and not on which powerful man the #MeToo movement is going to take down. This is a global movement of survivors who are trying to heal from sexual violence, and trying stop the scourge of sexual violence. I’m not invested in seeing us win. I know we will win. But I don’t have to see it happen. I’m more interested in planting the seeds to see it happen. Going forward, Burke has decidedly mixed feelings about her internet-fueled fame and what activism means in the age of social media. “Without social media, I was doing that work for 13 years, very slowly,” she said. “Prior to #MeToo going viral, the people I was working with around the country couldn’t see a time where there would be a national, sustained dialogue around sexual violence. Social media and this hashtag were great opening points. Social media can be a gift and a curse. But in this way, it was a gift.” Still, she worries that people just see the social media part and think that was the whole movement without appreciating all the work that led up to that moment. “One of the problems in the era of social movements is that people don’t feel what they’re doing is valid unless it is big,” she said. “You don’t have to be validated by ‘likes’. Telling your story is the first step to recovering. And that can be done by just talking to a friend. I would like us to remember that. I can do more with 10 really hardworking people who share the vision I have than I can going on Facebook and getting a bunch of likes.” Disclosure: The organizers of the Bits & Pretzels Conference paid for VentureBeat’s travel to the event. Our coverage remains objective. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft: 30% of IoT projects fail in the proof-of-concept stage | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/30/microsoft-30-of-iot-projects-fail-in-the-proof-of-concept-stage"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft: 30% of IoT projects fail in the proof-of-concept stage Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today launched a new research report — IoT Signals — intended to quantify enterprise internet of things (IoT) adoption around the world. The survey of over 3,000 IT team leaders and executives provides a detailed look at the burgeoning multi-billion-dollar segment’s greatest challenges and benefits, as well as related trends. “We’re living amid an invisible revolution driven by IoT. This revolution goes far beyond the smart speakers and thermostats in homes and includes billions of connected devices and sensors that are transforming every industry on the planet, from manufacturing to energy distribution, from smart cities to smart agriculture, from smart buildings to smart medical equipment — and so much more,” wrote Microsoft head of Azure IoT Sam George, who recently spoke with VentureBeat about the company’s IoT and intelligent edge strategy. “IoT is also starting to have a profound and beneficial impact on the planet, reducing energy and natural resources and improving sustainability.” Roughly 85% of respondents to Microsoft’s survey say they’re currently in the midst of IoT adoption, and three-fourths have projects in the planning stages. An equally high percentage — 88% — believe that IoT is “critical” to their business’ success, with a majority of those who’ve adopted IoT predicting they will see a 30% return on investment two years from now (inclusive of cost savings and efficiencies). Those sentiments more or less align with third-party findings. IDC anticipates that by 2025, there will be over 41 billion connected IoT devices generating over 79 zettabytes of data. (Ericsson pegs the number at 29 billion devices by 2022.) As for McKinsey, it expects IoT corporate spend will grow at a compound annual growth rate between 7% and 15% this year, driven by emerging remote monitoring, asset tracking, and predictive maintenance applications. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! But formidable challenges stand in the way of industry-wide adoption. Microsoft reports that complexity and technical challenges are an IoT dealbreaker for 38% of the decision-makers surveyed, and it says that 47% believe there aren’t enough available skilled workers to build or maintain a network of connected devices. Meanwhile, a whopping 97% have security concerns about IoT devices and infrastructure, while 43% and 38% worry about creating strong user authentications and maintaining IoT devices, respectively. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that 30% of respondents say their IoT projects failed in the proof-of-concept stage, often because the implementation became too expensive or the bottom-line benefits were unclear. To suss out the components of winning IoT strategies, Microsoft commissioned BCG Group, which jointly identified some key ingredients: business strategy, rationale, leadership and organization, technology roadmap planning, talent, operations and core business processes, partnerships and ecosystem, and security. According to BCG, the top-performing IoT projects started with an understanding of the problems to be addressed and the return on investment expected. Additionally, their implementers primed core processes affected by IoT to capture value. And BCG says that most of the successful IoT-adopting businesses didn’t neglect talent — instead, they concertedly built or acquired workforce capabilities based on gaps that need filling. “IoT is transforming every industry from retail and agriculture to healthcare and manufacturing by harnessing AI, edge computing and emerging capabilities like 5G across thousands of sensors and devices,” added George. “We’re at a critical tipping point where industry challenges like skills shortage, security concerns and solution complexity will hinder innovation, and pose significant risk to business and consumer data. It’s imperative that technology providers, standards organizations and industry solutions partners come together to help simplify and secure IoT.” Microsoft has a horse in the IoT race, of course — in 2018, it committed $5 billion to intelligent edge innovation by 2022 (an uptick from the $1.5 billion it spent prior to 2018) and pledged to grow its IoT partner ecosystem to over 10,000. It’s borne fruit in Azure IoT Central, a cloud service that enables customers to quickly provision and deploy IoT apps, and IoT Plug and Play, which provides devices that work with a range of off-the-shelf solutions. Microsoft’s investment has also bolstered Azure Sphere, its microcontroller unit management product; Azure Security Center, its unified cloud and edge security suite; and Azure IoT Edge, which distributes cloud intelligence to run in isolation on IoT devices directly. Microsoft has competition in Google’s Cloud IoT, a set of tools that connect, process, store, and analyze edge device data. Not to be outdone, Amazon Web Services’ IoT Device Management tracks, monitors, and manages fleets of devices running a range of operating systems and software. But the Seattle company has ramped up its buildout efforts as of late, most recently with the acquisition of Express Logic , a San Diego, California-based developer of real-time operating systems (RTOS) for IoT and edge devices powered by microcontroller units. Separately, it’s partnered with companies like DJI, SAP, PTC, Qualcomm, and Carnegie Mellon University for IoT and edge app development. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Newzoo expects that esports will help video games outgross traditional sports | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/29/newzoo-expects-that-esports-will-help-video-games-outgross-traditional-sports"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Newzoo expects that esports will help video games outgross traditional sports Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Esports team at SUNY Canton Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Every few years, research firm Newzoo makes predictions about the future of esports. It has done that recently for the consumer side , but now it’s back to do that again for the business of esports. And it continues to expect big things for this space, like $1.7 billion in revenues 2021. Newzoo’s biggest prediction for 2021 is that every major U.S. media conglomerate will have esports media rights in their portfolio. That’s not an outlandish statement, as it feels like we’re already heading in that direction, but this could represent the biggest increase in revenue for the esports industry. “U.S. media conglomerates such as Disney, Comcast, and AT&T are already looking into content rights for esports,” reads Newzoo’s blog post. “As these companies look to entice younger consumers, they will become even more active in the scene. We expect these companies to not only feature esports on their linear media platforms, as seen with the Overwatch League on Disney XD, but also on non-linear live-streaming platforms, such as Disney’s upcoming streaming service.” The other major outlook that Newzoo has for esports is how it will drive growth for gaming to surpass the revenue for traditional sports. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! “Gaming as a whole, including esports, is already on track to become a bigger industry than traditional professional sports,” Newzoo explains. “We expect that the global games market will generate revenues of $180.1 billion by 2021, and esports will be a major driver of this, with many brands investing in esports to appeal to younger demographics. As more companies get involved and consumers spend more time watching esports content outside of the competitions themselves, esports will generate much growth within the global games industry.” Above: Newzoo’s vision for the esports business of 2021. The research firm has other interesting thoughts about 2021. For example, the Olympics will embrace esports but not as part of its traditional winter or summer games. Newzoo analysts also believe that “esports” will fade by 2021 — the term, that is. Fans will likely talk about their individual game that they are a fan of, but don’t expect too many more generalized “esports tournaments.” But making predictions is easy, looking back at how wrong you were is tougher. But Newzoo did that for its predictions about esports from 2015. It claimed that esports would reach $465 million by 2017 (it reached $655 million) and outgross the WWE wrestling promotion (it did). It also claimed that media rights would turn into a huge focal point (that’s true), and organizations would need strict rules and regulations to protect tournaments from cheating (the Esports Integrity Coalition began in 2016). The only thing Newzoo didn’t nail is that esports would need to shift to a regional structure with city-based teams. Newzoo claims that’s partially true thanks to the Overwatch League, but it also notes that this strategy has gone widely ignored by other leagues. But who knows, maybe that could still happen by 2021. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Riot Games gets Nielsen to measure League of Legends esports competitions | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/27/riot-games-gets-nielsen-to-measure-league-of-legends-esports-competitions"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Riot Games gets Nielsen to measure League of Legends esports competitions Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Esports can fill stadiums for big events -- but is that enough? Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Riot Games has tapped Nielsen to measure League of Legends esports competition so sponsors know the impact of their advertising dollars. The deal is important to helping esports generate the same kind of big advertising revenues as traditional sports. This is a path for esports to live up to the hype for generating revenue. Nielsen will handle comprehensive sponsorship valuation measurement across the Riot’s multiple esports leagues and competitions around the world. The move will help Riot Games demonstrate the monetary value of exposure provided to brands currently activating or considering association with its League of Legends events. The research also will support brands in achieving the greatest return on investment through Riot Games. As part of the agreement, Riot Games will provide access to its aggregated streaming viewership data to support Nielsen’s independent brand exposure measurement. This includes the new Pro View experience that helps fans follow individual players during League of Legends competitions. Metrics will be incorporated into the industry-leading Nielsen Esport24 syndicated sponsorship valuation product. Brand involvement in esports is growing as marketers look to connect with this hard-to-reach, tech-savvy segment of young adults who utilize online ad blockers and are less likely to watch television. According to recent Nielsen research, one in five fans globally began following esports in the past year, and nearly 60% of U.S. esports viewers on Twitch say they don’t watch television on a weekly basis. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! “As esports continues to gain momentum with brand marketers and advertisers, the need for independent, third-party verification of audiences and brand exposure is critical,” said Nicole Pike, managing director at Nielsen Esports, in a statement. “With this agreement, we have the opportunity to help monetize Riot Games’ platform and validate this growing market.” League of Legends Esports is a premier global sport that attracts the attention of millions of fans around the world through 13 regional leagues which consist of over 800 professional players and 100 professional teams. Each regional league comprises approximately 10 teams that compete year-round against one another over the course of two seasonal splits. The sport is globally integrated through three international events: the World Championship, the Mid-Season Invitational, and the All-Star Event. Nielsen will measure brand exposure throughout 2019 and 2020 including the North America League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), League of Legends European Championship (LEC), the League of Legends three international events, and select regional leagues in Asia. “Trust and transparency are vital components of building and maintaining relationships with brand partners,” said Doug Watson, head of esports insights at Riot Games, in a statement. “As major companies invest in our tournaments, we want to help them see the value of their exposure and identify how best to engage with our passionate fan base.” During the past 12 months, League of Legends Esports has signed on multiple prominent partners which include Mastercard, Dell/Alienware, State Farm, and Nike. Additionally, Riot Games has launched multiple premium products including Pro View, Team Pass, and Fan Pass, which supplement the viewing experience on watch.lolesports.com — the viewing portal developed by Riot Games specifically for League of Legends Esports. Riot Games is a member of the Nielsen Esports Advisory Board and has been actively leading efforts to standardize metrics for esports viewership and sponsorship valuation. The League of Legends World Championships in 2018 saw an average minute audience of 19.6 million during the finals. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Netmarble shows 2019 lineup -- Lineage 2: Revolution, Rich Wars, and The King of Fighters AllStar | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/28/netmarble-shows-2019-lineup-lineage-2-revolution-rich-wars-and-the-king-of-all-fighters-allstar"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Preview Netmarble shows 2019 lineup — Lineage 2: Revolution, Rich Wars, and The King of Fighters AllStar Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Lineage 2: Revolution has a new Agathion system update. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. I made a pilgrimage to the Netmarble booth at the Game Developers Conference last week and I got an update on the company’s 2019 lineup. The fare included an update for the lucrative Lineage 2: Revolution , Rich Wars, and King of Fighters AllStar. Simon Sim, the president of Netmarble US, announced last week that Lineage 2: Revolution had generated more than $1 billion in revenue in its first year as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game on mobile devices. And today the company is releasing a major update to the game. “Our games are a mix of licensed intellectual property and our own IP,” Sim said. “Rich Wars is our own IP. A version of it was successful in Asia, and we are bringing it to the West.” The update includes new pet companions called Agathions for its in-game hero characters. The Agathion System offers equipable pets that follow the heroes, along with mounts and summons. Agathions are unlocked at Lv. 15 and do not participate in combat. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! But they have substats that help to strengthen hero characters. The available Agathions include Little Demon, Little Angel, Royal Hamstar, and Jiangshi. The game also has a new territory, Schuttgart, which is now available for players to explore. Above: Simon Sim is head of Netmarble US The King of Fighters AllStar is going to launch with 50 characters — basically, every fighter from the SNK franchise under one roof — and more will be released over time. I gave it a whirl and it had a simple control scheme. It’s pretty much a full mobile version of the ’90s-style beat-’em-up, sidescrolling game. You control the character and its lane with a joystick on the lower left side of the screen. You can do a basic attack and use ultimate abilities, and buttons for dodging and blocking. Each level has three sections. You progress, you have to defeat all the enemies within each section. I mashed the buttons and change lanes, retreated when necessary, but mostly went on the attack. And that paid off. My special attack was pretty devastating, but it had a timer, of course. Above: King of Fighters AllStar is coming to mobile. Sim looked on while I played and he kindly showed surprise and admiration for my fighting skill. And actually, the game was pretty accessible. I took out a boss in my first sitting. The game debuts on mobile devices later this year. Above: Rich Wars I also looked at Rich Wars, an original title from Netmarble. It’s a highly competitive, player-versus-player, a dice game where you bet virtual money against other players. The game looks a little like a Monopoly board, where you roll the virtual dice and move your character around the board. You can land on different properties and buy them or block them from being sold to your competitor. It has different characters like Brandon the hacker and Gemma the heiress. It’s got some fairly elaborate rules, but if you play Monopoly, you get the idea. It comes from N2, one of Netmarble’s studios that has been making board games for the past 15 years, Sim said. It will soft launch soon. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft details Windows 10 as a service | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2015/04/30/microsoft-details-windows-10-as-a-service"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft details Windows 10 as a service Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the Windows 10 reveal earlier this year. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. At a Windows breakout session during Build 2015 today, Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s operating systems group, talked more about the company’s favorite new term: “Windows as a service.” Belfiore talked about what it means for Windows 10 upon launch and beyond. Microsoft has referred to Windows as a service multiple times throughout Windows 10’s development, mainly to emphasize that the company’s latest and greatest operating system will not just have updates like previous Windows releases, but more significant improvements over its lifetime. Today we learned a lot more. Belfiore told a group of reporters that Windows 10 will not be arriving on all devices at the same time. To put it simply, Windows 10 will launch on PCs first, and sometime later will arrive for phones. Other devices like Surface Hub and Microsoft HoloLens will follow. Microsoft did not share a Windows 10 release date yesterday like many expected, nor did it today. Belfiore said that the company is sticking with its “ this summer ” timeframe, but emphasized that when the company reveals a date, it will only apply to PCs. Everything else will come in the weeks and months that follow. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! As Belfiore noted, Windows of course has a much bigger userbase on the PC than on the phone. Because of this, and since Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for the first year , Microsoft wants to make sure it properly promotes, and gets users excited about getting, the new version. Furthermore, Windows 10 for phones has to go through carrier testing, something Microsoft naturally has little control over. The last reason for the release gap is one we have heard Microsoft say before when admitting that Windows 10 for phones is behind its PC counterpart in terms of features and stability: Windows 8 was released before Windows Phone 8, so the latter simply has a late start. Windows 10 as a service also means that some Windows 10 features we’ve seen already won’t be there at launch. Microsoft mentioned a few of these yesterday, and Belfiore reminded reporters of two today: support for porting Android, iOS, and Win32 apps to the Windows Store and extension support in Microsoft Edge. Both won’t be available when Windows 10 launches, but will come soon after. Last but not least, Belfiore confirmed that the Windows Insider program will continue even after Windows 10 launches. In other words, when Windows 10 testers upgrade to the final build, they will be able to choose if they want to stay with it, or to receive newer builds and continue testing upcoming features. A lot of the above was rumored last month, but now it’s official. Windows 10 will be a massive, but staggered, launch, both in terms of initial debut and new features. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft rolls out first major Windows 10 update for PCs and tablets | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2015/11/12/microsoft-rolls-out-first-major-windows-10-update-for-pcs-and-tablets"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft rolls out first major Windows 10 update for PCs and tablets Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Windows 10 Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today released the first major update to Windows 10 on PCs and tablets. At the same time, Microsoft says the update means the company “can confidently recommend Windows 10 deployment to whole organizations.” Windows 10 users will receive the November update, as Microsoft is calling this release, according to their Windows Update settings. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users who want to use the free upgrade offer will be able to get Windows 10 with the November update already applied. Windows 10 is a service. As we wrote in our deep dive on how Microsoft built, and is still building, Windows 10 , this means that despite its launch in July, it’s still getting new features and improvements. All the improvements, which Microsoft says reach “all aspects of the platform and experience,” have already been seen by Windows Insiders in preview builds — indeed the November update is really just Windows 10 build 10586. Here’s the rundown. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Performance in everyday tasks has improved. Boot time in particular is now nearly 30 percent faster than for Windows 7 on the same device, Microsoft claims. Mail, Calendar, Photos, Groove, Xbox, Windows Store, OneNote, and even Solitaire have all gained improvements. But the biggest additions are to Microsoft’s most important apps in Windows 10: Cortana and Microsoft Edge. Cortana now supports pen input, and is able to recognize phone numbers, email addresses, and even physical addresses to help you set reminders. The digital assistant can also now keep track of your event and movie bookings, plus let you book an Uber. Last, but not least, Cortana is now available in Japan, Australia, Canada, and India (in English). Edge has gained performance and security improvements. It also now has a tab preview feature, which allows you to hover over your tabs and see what is open on each without leaving the page you’re on. Microsoft Edge now syncs your Favorites and Reading list items across devices, while Cortana can now notify you of available coupons while you browse shopping sites in Edge. Extension support, however, has been delayed until 2016. Microsoft is also including the consumer preview of its Skype integration. Skype video calling and messaging features (1:1 messaging, calling, and emoticons) are now built into native Windows 10 apps. Microsoft didn’t say when the integration would come out of preview. That’s for consumers. For businesses, Microsoft is adding two new features: Windows Update for Business and Windows Store for Business. Windows Update for Business lets IT departments control the deployment of updates within their organizations. It’s possible to set up device groups with staggered deployments and scale deployments with network optimizations. Windows Store for Business lets IT departments find, acquire, manage, and distribute apps to Windows 10 devices by directly assigning apps, publishing apps to a private store, or connecting with management solutions. That includes apps in the Windows Store as well as custom business apps. Organizations can choose their preferred distribution method. IT departments can now also use new Mobile Device Management features to manage the entire family of Windows devices, including PCs, tablets, phones, and IOT. Additionally, the new Azure Active Directory Join lets IT departments maintain one directory so employees can have a single login and securely roam their Windows settings and data across all of their Windows 10 devices. In addition to all of the above, Microsoft says “thousands of partners” have updated their device drivers and applications for great Windows 10 compatibility. Last night, the new Xbox One experience started rolling out , which includes Windows 10. All that is left is Windows 10 Mobile: Microsoft plans to launch the first Windows 10 phones this month and to roll out Windows 10 Mobile to existing Windows Phone users in December. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Windows 10 is now on over 350 million devices, free Anniversary Update coming on August 2 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2016/06/29/windows-10-is-now-on-over-350-million-devices-free-anniversary-update-coming-on-august-2"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Windows 10 is now on over 350 million devices, free Anniversary Update coming on August 2 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Windows 10 Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today announced that Windows 10 is now installed on over 350 million devices. It took the latest and greatest operating system from the company about 11 months to hit the new milestone. Furthermore, Microsoft also confirmed the free Windows 10 Anniversary Update will begin rolling out on August 2. Yesterday, the company accidentally published a blog post titled “Microsoft announces Windows 10 anniversary update available Aug. 2” but with no body. Even though Microsoft pulled the post less than an hour later, the release date had accidentally been revealed early. Now it’s official: The update will be arriving a year and four days after Windows 10’s debut. Microsoft unveiled the update at its Build 2016 developer conference in March. The free upgrade includes Windows Ink , Cortana and Edge improvements, advanced security features for consumers and enterprises, and new gaming experiences , as well as new classroom tools. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Windows 10 is a service. That means it is regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features too. Windows 10 was built in a very different way than its predecessors, and it is still being built. Windows 10 was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks. It passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, and then 300 million after nine months. Microsoft is aiming for 1 billion devices to be running Windows 10 “in two to three years.” Because its free upgrade offer is ending next month, the company has put together a bunch of new deals to renew the push: Students can save $300 when they purchase an Xbox One and Surface or get a free TV when they purchase a Dell PC over $699. Consumers can get $150 off select HP devices or $100 off select Asus and Samsung devices. Nothing spectacular here, and Microsoft will frankly need to offer something better quickly if it’s going to hit that 1 billion figure over the next two years. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Windows 10 Creators Update is coming on April 11, Surface devices arrive in more countries on April 20 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/29/windows-10-creators-update-is-coming-on-april-11-surface-devices-arrive-in-more-countries-on-april-20"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Windows 10 Creators Update is coming on April 11, Surface devices arrive in more countries on April 20 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today announced the free Windows 10 Creators Update will begin rolling out on April 11. For those keeping track, this is build 15063 , first released to Windows Insiders on March 20. The company first unveiled the Creators Update at its Windows 10 event in October 2016. The free upgrade includes 3D and mixed reality features, broadcasting functionality for gamers, and Edge improvements, plus new security capabilities and privacy tools. In related news, Microsoft today also shared that its Surface devices are coming to more countries. You can now preorder the Surface Book with Performance base in Austria, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. Surface Studio and Surface Dial are now available for preorder in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. All three Surface products will be available for purchase in the aforementioned countries starting on April 20. Here is a quick rundown on the new features you can expect in the Creators Update (also check out our more detailed breakout for gamers ): Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Paint 3D: This new app lets you create 3D objects from scratch, change their colors and textures, or turn a 2D object into a 3D one. Remix3D.com takes this a step further with an online library of premade 3D art that you can use and where you can share your own creations. Windows Mixed Reality headsets: The update supports these new devices coming from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo starting at $299 and shipping later this year. Built-in sensors mean six degrees of freedom without the need for external markers or sensors. Beam: Windows 10 PC and Xbox One gamers can stream gameplay, chat, and interact with the community in real time. Game Mode: Dedicate more resources to your PC games, or really any app you choose. Edge advanced tab management: Find, organize, and open tabs you’ve set aside without leaving the page you’re on. Edge Books: Get e-books in the Windows Store and read them in Edge across all of your Windows 10 devices. Night light: Reduce the blue light emitted by your screen so you can hopefully sleep better. Mini view: Keep an ever-present small window on top of what you’re doing. This is useful for always having a show on in the background, carrying on a Skype conversation, or controlling your music. Screen time limits: A similar set of controls is now available for Xbox One, so parents can manage how much time their children play games across the console and PC. You can set a daily allowance for each child and they will be automatically signed out when time is up. Remote lock: Windows Hello can now use any smartphone, fitness band, or device that’s paired to your PC or tablet to detect when you step away, automatically locking your computer behind. Windows Defender Security Center: A single dashboard display lets you control your security tools (anti-virus, network, and firewall), assess your device performance and health, limit apps, and set family safety options. Privacy: A new set up experience that lets you choose the settings across Windows 10 and other Microsoft services. Windows 10 is a service , meaning it was built in a very different way than its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes but new features , too. While Microsoft has released many such updates, the Creators Update is the third major one and follows the Windows 10 Anniversary Update , released in August 2016. Windows 10 was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months , 350 million after 11 months , and 400 million after 14 months. Microsoft was aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 “in two to three years,” but backpedaled on that goal. Indeed, the company did not have a new figure to share today, meaning Windows 10 is still on some 400 million devices, but below half a billion. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is coming on October 17 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/01/windows-10-fall-creators-update-is-coming-on-october-17"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is coming on October 17 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today announced that the free Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and the first Windows Mixed Reality headsets will begin rolling out on October 17. For those keeping track, the update will be a Windows 10 build between 16278 and 16353 — the company hasn’t released the final one yet. The company first unveiled the Fall Creators Update at its Build 2017 developer conference in May. The free upgrade includes improvements to Windows Inking, Photos and Videos, OneDrive files on demand , gaming features, security, accessibility, and the addition of Windows Mixed Reality. Here is a quick rundown on the new features you can expect in the Fall Creators Update: Windows Inking : You can ink directly onto PDFs, Smart Ink uses artificial intelligence to automatically perfect your squares or turn boxes into a table for you, and Find my Pen does exactly that when you misplace your pen. Photos and Videos : The Photos app is now better at letting you remix content using photos, videos, music, 3D, and ink. OneDrive files on demand : Access your cloud files like any of your other files on your PC, without using up your local storage space. Gaming : Game Mode has been updated to let your games use the full processing power of your device as if it was an Xbox game console. New Xbox Play Anywhere games are also coming and include: Cuphead, Forza Motorsport 7, Super Lucky’s Tale, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Security : Windows Defender now uses cloud intelligence to defend against ransomware and exploits. Accessibility : Windows 10 is now more accessible for those with Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that impacts the brain’s ability to control muscles. Eye Control implements eye tracking technology that lets you type and operate a mouse using just your eyes. Windows Mixed Reality : Windows 10 now supports mixed reality, which combines the physical and digital worlds without limiting you to a mobile device screen size. Microsoft’s system does not require mounting cameras around the room, but it does require plugging your headset into a PC. Speaking of mixed reality, back in October 2016 Microsoft revealed that partners Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo would be shipping Windows 10 VR headsets in 2017, starting at $299. At the time, the company didn’t give a specific timeframe for their release, but it has now become clear the October 17 date is not just on the software side. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! This week at IFA, Dell unveiled its Visor headset , shipping on October 17, and Lenovo revealed its Explore headset , available “in the coming weeks.” Acer’s and HP’s headsets will be available in time for the holidays (Update: HP tells VentureBeat its headset will also be available on October 17). Only Asus’ headset is slated for spring 2018. With Windows 10 Mobile dying off, Microsoft is now hoping to push Windows 10 with mixed reality. Windows 10 growth has slowed, and this is the company’s best bet to get it back on track. Windows 10 was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, 400 million after 14 months, and 500 million after 21 months. Microsoft was aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 “in two to three years” but backpedaled on that goal. Indeed, the company did not have a new figure to share today, meaning Windows 10 is still on some 500 million devices. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Windows 10 April 2018 Update is coming on April 30 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/27/windows-10-april-2018-update-is-coming-on-april-30"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Windows 10 April 2018 Update is coming on April 30 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today announced that the free Windows 10 April 2018 Update (previously rumored to be called the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update) will begin rolling out on April 30, 2018. For those keeping track, this update is Windows 10 build 17134 (version 1803). Update on April 30 : You can now force the download and installation yourself. The name change here isn’t hugely significant, but it does signal Microsoft has given up on naming Windows 10 updates. Instead, the company is just going to stick with the month and year of release (there are still two major free updates expected every year), even if the update lands on the last day of the month. Windows 10 is a service , meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too. Microsoft has released four major updates so far: November Update , Anniversary Update , Creators Update , and Fall Creators Update. The fifth one will be out on Monday. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! In contrast to past Windows 10 updates, Microsoft never announced or unveiled the April 2018 Update. That’s likely because its main highlight feature, Timeline, was supposed to be part of its predecessor, the Fall Creators Update. When Timeline got delayed, it ended up in the April 2018 Update, which means there wasn’t much to shout about. Here is a quick rundown of the new features you can expect in the April 2018 Update: Timeline: Search through all the activities you performed up to 30 days ago to find what you were working on, including apps, files, and websites. You can also pick up what you were doing on your Android or iOS device, as long as you were signed into your Microsoft account while using Edge or Office 365. Focus Assist: Turn this on whenever you want to get things done without distractions, like social media, email, or other notifications — you can even set it to turn on automatically at certain times during the day, or make exceptions for people that you’re waiting to hear from. When you’ve finished, you’ll receive a summary of what came through. Edge: Microsoft’s browser has also received some features for helping you focus. There’s now an audio icon for muting and unmuting tabs (but no autoplay blocking), a full-screen reading experience (for books, PDFs, and Reading View pages), autofill on web payment forms, a clutter-free printing option, and a Grammar Tools button to enable comprehension aids. Dictation: You can now take a note, or write a paper, with just your voice. Place your cursor in any text field, hit Win+H, and start talking. Cortana: Manage your smart home right from your PC using just your voice. Supported devices include Ecobee, Honeywell, and the Nest Learning thermostat. Microsoft also listed simplified IT management tools for enterprise customers, improvements to Photos and Windows Mixed Reality, better security, and PC gaming enhancements. If you’re a Windows Insider, these shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but if you haven’t been testing Windows 10 previews, you can go through past builds and see as the features were added. The enterprise improvements are worth calling out. Delivery Optimization allows for one device to download an update and then use the local network to deliver that update to peers, reducing bandwidth by as much as 90 percent. Windows AutoPilot now has an enrollment status page for ensuring that policies, settings, and apps can be provisioned on the device before the user gets to the desktop and begins interacting with the device. Windows 10 adoption started out very strong, but it naturally slowed as the months progressed. The operating system was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, 400 million after 14 months, 500 million after 21 months, and 600 million after 27 months. Microsoft was aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 by now but has backpedaled on that goal. Indeed, the company did not have a new figure to share today, meaning Windows 10 is still on some 600 million devices (although outgoing chief Terry Myerson said last month that the 700 million mark is close ). GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 October 2018 Update | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/02/microsoft-starts-rolling-out-windows-10-october-2018-update"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 October 2018 Update Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Windows 10 Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft announced today the free Windows 10 October 2018 Update is rolling out now. For those keeping track, this update is Windows 10 build 17763 and will bring Windows 10 to version 1809. You can grab it from Windows Update when it’s served to you, or try to download it manually. Windows 10 is being developed as a service , meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released five major updates so far: November Update , Anniversary Update , Creators Update , Fall Creators Update , and April 2018 Update. The sixth one arrives this month. As you can see, Microsoft has stopped naming Windows 10 updates. The company is now simply sticking with the month and year of release (two free feature updates are expected every year). The Windows 10 October 2018 Update brings a dark theme for File Explorer, a new snipping experience, a cloud-powered clipboard, support for extended line endings in Notepad, integration with the Your Phone app , new web sign-in and fast sign-in features, a mixed reality flashlight feature, SwiftKey in the touch keyboard, a more robust Game bar, and many other improvements. The highly anticipated Sets feature did not make the cut. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Windows 10 adoption started out very strong, but naturally slowed as the months progressed. Microsoft was aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in two to three years but backpedaled on that goal. The operating system was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, 400 million after 14 months, 500 million after 21 months, and 600 million after 27 months. In September, after 37 months, it passed 700 million devices. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 May 2019 Update | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/21/microsoft-starts-rolling-out-windows-10-may-2019-update"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 May 2019 Update Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft announced today the free Windows 10 May 2019 Update is rolling out now. For those keeping track, this update is Windows 10 build 18362 and will bring Windows 10 to version 1903. You can grab it from Windows Update when it’s served to you, or try to download it manually. Windows 10 is being developed as a service , meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released seven major updates so far: November Update , Anniversary Update , Creators Update , Fall Creators Update , April 2018 Update , October 2018 Update , and now May 2019 Update. As you can see, Microsoft stopped naming Windows 10 updates last year. The company is now simply sticking with the month and year of release (two free feature updates per year). You’ll notice that this latest update is coming out a month later than expected — that’s because of previous quality assurance issues. In that vein, Microsoft has also launched a Windows health dashboard to track the current rollout status and known issues (open and resolved). The Windows 10 May 2019 Update brings a new light theme, separates Search and Cortana in the taskbar, and introduces the Windows Sandbox (a lightweight desktop environment tailored for safely running applications in isolation). Compared to previous free updates, this one doesn’t have as many significant features. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Windows 10 adoption started out very strong, but naturally slowed as the months progressed. Microsoft was aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in two to three years but backpedaled on that goal. The operating system was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks. Growth was fairly steady afterwards: 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, and 400 million after 14 months. It naturally tapered, though: 500 million after 21 months, 600 million after 28 months, 700 million after 38 months, and 800 million after 44 months. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with sign-in improvements | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/21/microsoft-releases-new-windows-10-preview-with-sign-in-improvements"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with sign-in improvements Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview with sign-in improvements. The update bumps Windows 10 from build 18963 (made available to testers on August 16) to build 18965. These builds are from the 20H1 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update that will arrive in the first half of next year. Windows 10 is being developed as a service , meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released seven major updates so far: November Update , Anniversary Update , Creators Update , Fall Creators Update , April 2018 Update , October 2018 Update , and May 2019 Update. When you restart Windows 10, some apps can restart as well. Until now, this option was tied to the “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device” option under Sign-in options in accounts settings. Now, you have more explicit control over when Windows 10 automatically restarts apps that were open when you restart your PC. When turned on, Windows automatically saves your restartable apps when signing out, restarting, or shutting down Windows and restarts them the next time you sign in. The setting is off by default (Settings => Accounts => Sign-in options). Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Bug fixes This 20H1 build includes the following bug fixes and improvements: Fixed an issue resulting in the screens shown while updating Windows unexpectedly saying “managed by your organization” for some Insiders. Fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar unexpectedly hiding sometimes when launching the touch keyboard. Fixed an issue where some of the colors weren’t correct in Language Settings if using High Contrast White. Fixed an issue that could result in background tasks not working in certain apps. Fixed an issue where if you set focus to the notification area of the taskbar via WIN+B, then opened a flyout and pressed Esc to close it, then the focus rectangle would no longer show up correctly anymore. Fixed an issue where on the Bluetooth & Other Settings page, the device type wasn’t read out loud when using a screen reader. Fixed an issue resulting in help links not being accessible when adding a new wireless display device on the Bluetooth & Other Settings page if the text scaling was set to 200%. Known issues This build has seven known issues: Insiders may notice a new “Cloud download” option in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) under “Reset this PC”. This feature is not working quite yet. There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. Make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system. Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. The minimize, maximize, and close title bar buttons aren’t working for certain apps. Alt+F4 should work as expected to close the app if needed. Some WSL distros will not load ( Issue #4371 ). DWM is using unexpectedly high system resources for some Insiders. A small number of Insiders get an lsass.exe crash and an error message saying, “Windows ran into a problem and needs to restart.” As always, don’t install this on your production machine. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Borderlands 3 interview -- How the writers envisioned twin 'livescream' villains and multiple planets | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/14/borderlands-3-interview-how-the-writers-envisioned-twin-livescream-villains-and-multiple-planets"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Borderlands 3 interview — How the writers envisioned twin ‘livescream’ villains and multiple planets Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Borderlands 3 has some big shoes to fill as it tries once again to be the violent first-person shooter that makes you laugh out loud. From the beginning moments where you reassemble the sassy Clap Trap robot companion to the cuddly teddy bear Balex, voiced by Ice-T, Borderlands 3 will make you chuckle. I know this because I played a few hours of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 3 at game publisher 2K’s offices in Novato. Then I spoke with the writers Danny Homan and Sam Winkler, who had to bring the world beyond Pandora and the dialogue of the twin villains, Tyreen and Troy Calpyso, to life. Gearbox Software has a lot to live up to with this title, which debuts on September 13 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. The series has sold more than 48 million copies since the first title debuted in 2009. But it’s been a long time since Borderlands 2 debuted in 2012 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel came out in 2014. Gamers are chomping at the bit to see Pandora again, as well as the new planets in the game such as Eden-6. Homan and Winker had to think up new villains to replace the memorable Handsome Jack. They came up with the Calpyso twins, a brother-and-sister duo who livestream (or Livescream) their slaughter to followers known as the Children of the Vault. I only played a short few hours of the game, which could last 30 to 35 hours. But I thought it had some very funny parts. Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Here’s an edited transcript of our interview. Above: Borderlands writers: Danny Homan (left), senior writer; and co-writer Sam Winkler. GamesBeat: Have you been on the project from the beginning? Danny Homan: I feel like it existed as a text document before we came on, but we’ve been on there for about three years. GamesBeat: I talked with Paul Sage , the creative director of Borderlands 3 during E3, and I remember him saying he came in from the outside and got the whole thing going. Did you come in after him, as the team was coming together? Sam Winkler: Yeah. At the time the lead writer was Mikey Neumann, who was the writer of Borderlands one. We came on to supplement his work. Unfortunately he had to leave due to health reasons, and so we took over the mantle. It’s been really interesting co-developing that. Two very distinct voices. We’re still figuring out what our Borderlands voice is, and we came to some very interesting conclusions in Borderlands 3. Homan: Mostly we try to make each other laugh, make the entire studio laugh. If we can do that, we’re doing something right. Above: Fl4k is a Beastmaster among the Vault Hunters. GamesBeat: Paul said that one of the mandates was that you had to have multiple planets. Winkler: Yeah, yeah. Explore the universe. We’ve seen Pandora quite a bit in the previous games. We still get our fair share of it in Borderlands 3, but the whole galaxy opened up once we said, “OK, we’re getting on a new ship and seeing new spaces.” Homan: A fun challenge has been, how do you export that dark humor that we love in the Borderlands franchise from Pandora to Eden-6 and other planets? GamesBeat: The twins were a big development as well, conceiving them as the enemy. Homan: Absolutely. Having a brother and sister duo is a cool opportunity. If you have a sibling, you know so much about them. That’s such a wonderful and dangerous opportunity for villains. When they’re together, they’re a force to be reckoned with, but occasionally, like brothers and sisters, they fight. They have a conflict. That’s interesting and entertaining as well. Winkler: We were constantly asking ourselves how we’d follow up on Handsome Jack. He’s one of the most recognizable video game villains of all time. The reality was, just don’t try to do Jack again. We wanted to make sure the voices of the villains were unique and felt relevant in 2019. We took this previous idea, where in Borderlands the villains are these corporate faces. They’re a hit squad, or they’re this megalomaniac charismatic tyrant. We went away from the corporations a bit and said, “What about this crowdsourced, homegrown cult of personality?” That unlocked a lot of ideas for us. They’ve managed to do what no one could do before and take this disparate bandit clans and bring them all together. So then we asked, “How do you get that popular?” Well, these days you become a streamer. Homan: Big streamers have that rare charisma, something about them. You have to be entertaining enough to accrue a mass following. Then the question becomes, how do you keep that following and grow that following? You have to keep on escalating and doing different things. That’s a cool formula for villains. Above: Borderlands 3’s Eden-6 planet is a swamp with dinosaurs. GamesBeat: How present are they throughout the game? Are they always there? Winkler: You’ll hear from them and see their effects pretty vividly. One of the things about the Borderlands universe is that it has the echo system, which for better or for worse — people can ping you any time they like. They just call you up and say, “What’s up, idiot” while you’re trying to get something done. Some of the most fun is just in having the villains roast the player sometimes. GamesBeat: It sounds like there’s an enormous amount of writing in that. How do you keep them fresh? Homan: Part of it is that dynamic between the two of them. When you meet the Calypsos at the beginning of the game, Tyreen is the entertainer. She’s the show-person, the really charismatic one. Troy is kind of on the sidelines, managing the cult, stoking the flames of their atrocities. But as the story progresses some interesting things happen that shift and change that power dynamic. GamesBeat: So they’re not just there to annoy you. Winkler: Yeah, they have their reasons. They’re not just dicks for dicks’ sake. But in terms of keeping that fresh, one of the cool things about Borderlands is that the enemies are very vocal. The player characters are very vocal. Instead of having to rely on enemies calling you up and saying, “I’m evil for this reason, let me tell you why,” we actually do a lot of world-building in the enemy callouts, showing that they’re religiously devoted to these twins and stuff like that. We find out a lot more about it just from incidental combat stuff. There are so many different voices. At any time one of us feels like, “I think I’ve written my share of this one character,” we can throw to the other and get their spin on it. That’s been really cool. Homan: Another aspect of our process that’s enjoyable is that our actors really do help us inform the characters and help them grow. Not only actors from past games in the franchise, but also our new actors. We’ll write some stuff and we’ll be engaged by it, and then we’ll get into the booth and riff and allow them to take the character on. Sometimes the best lines in Borderlands aren’t written by us. They’re the actors just becoming that character. Winkler: Zehra Fazal, the voice of Amara, we really knew we’d done a good job casting when she started throwing some Urdu into her lines. Just stuff we hadn’t written. We said, “Yes, more of that, please!” That felt really good. Homan: Same thing with Cian Barry, who plays Zane. He taught us a lot about some interesting Irish slang. Above: Fl4k doesn’t look so tough from this view. GamesBeat: As far as how you put it all together, do you have something like a writers’ room? Do you have a whole group in one place? Homan: We often start by taking a main mission or a side mission, a battle grid. We’ll look at it together and think about what’s working and what we can punch up or make different. Sometimes someone will take another stab at a script to give a fresh perspective. Winkler: When we’re developing stuff toward the beginning, getting that high-level map of what the storyline looks like before we write actual scripts, we have a narrative group. We meet multiple times a week and compare notes on what we think needs to be done. We make big decisions. Then we retreat and say, “OK, we have our marching orders to fill in these areas.” Our managing producer, Randy Varnell, who’s in charge of the narrative team, has been good at keeping us corralled on that one. Homan: One thing we’ve been doing that’s more unique to this project is we do live readings. We’ll have a script and we’ll call in a bunch of devs to read parts. That’s where you start to hear what the character dynamics are, what’s working and what isn’t. We go back and revise based on that. GamesBeat: In co-op, it feels like somebody might be near you, or they might not be. I wonder how you handle dialogue when that happens, when you’re not sure where the other character is. Winkler: That’s a kind of shorthand we have. Someone will suggest something in a room and someone else will say, “Co-op.” [laughs] It’s inevitable, if you have two people with free will, they’re going to stomp over some stuff pretty good. One handy thing is, we have a prioritization system, to make sure people hear the most pressing information about a mission. If player two is off to one side doing collectibles, stuff like that, that won’t overwrite the important main mission they’re doing. But another factor we’ve changed since Borderlands 2 is that now, when you’re picking up echo logs, recorded audio, that now goes into your menu. You can always replay those at any time. You don’t just have the one chance to hear it. For people who are interested in those little bits of side lore, they can go find it and not have it be a goose chase. Above: Eden-6 has very different vibes in Borderlands 3. GamesBeat: You have Claptrap and — is that the navigator guy? Homan: Balex, yeah. GamesBeat: They’re there to anchor a lot of this messaging or communication to the player? Winkler: A lot of games writing is figuring out how to say the same thing five times without making it feel stale, whether that’s an enemy who has to shout “GRENADE!” or reiterating what the mission objectives are without it sounding like, “For the last time, please go do this.” The players want to do the mission objectives. They just need to know what it is and be entertained along the way. GamesBeat: Do they serve as that kind of advice, then? They’re always there for the writer, because they’re always in a certain place. Winkler: That role is fulfilled by various different characters throughout the game. If we attached the player to one particular character, they might get tired of them halfway through. We have a really varied cast of characters that have different reasons for helping out. Homan: There are definitely some missions where you’ll do something with an NPC, going on an adventure, but you can always come back to Sanctuary, your ship, and talk to the characters you’ve met along the way. Not only will we have side missions, but we’ll also have contextual dialogue. They can talk about past things that have happened in the game. You can interact with them. 1 2 View All Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Intel debuts Agilex family of FPGAs for datacenter workloads | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/02/intel-debuts-agilex-family-of-fpgas-for-datacenter-workloads"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Intel debuts Agilex family of FPGAs for datacenter workloads Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) — integrated circuits designed to be configured post-manufacture — is a versatile tech with applications in a swath of domains including (but not limited to) high-performance computing, consumer electronics, bioinformatics, medicine, security, and even aerospace and defense. Analysts Statistics MRC pegged the overall industry at $63.05 billion in 2017 and expects it to grow to $117.97 billion by 2026, buoyed by increased demand for optimization in big data analytics and edge computing. It’s with these metrics top of mind, no doubt, that Intel this week announced a new FPGA product family due out in Q3 of this year: Intel Agilex. It’s a collection of embedded chipsets that the Santa Clara company says address “data-centric” challenges in enterprise networks and datacenters. As Daniel McNamara, senior VP and general manager of Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group, explained in a conference call with reporters, Agilex products — which are built on Intel’s 10-nanometer (nm) process technology — feature a customizable heterogeneous 3D system-in-package (SiP) that comprises analog, memory, computing, and custom I/O components including DDR5, HBM, and an Intel Optane DC. They’re all fully supported by Intel’s One API, a suite of developer tools for mapping compute engines to a range of processors, graphics chips, field-programmable gate arrays, and other accelerators, and offer a migration path to both structured application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and standard-cell ASICs. “We’re basing [Agilex] on or what we call EMIB — Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge — which builds the interconnect into the substrate,” McNamara said. “[T]his allows us to put a base FPGA die, and then put any different [tile] all in the same package integrated into one device.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Spotlight features are compatible with Intel’s Compute Express Link (the cache and memory coherent interconnect to future Intel Xeon Scalable processors), and support hardened BFLOAT16 (a floating-point format occupying 16 bits in memory) and up to 40 teraflops of half-precision (FP16) digital signal processor performance. Agilex FPGAs are able to achieve 40 percent higher performance or 40 percent lower total power compared with Intel’s 14nm Stratix 10 FPGAs, thanks in part to their second-generation HyperFlex architecture, and they support transceiver data rates of up to 112Gbps and speedy interconnect peripherals via PCI Express Gen 5. “[T]his is a big opportunity for FPGA to accelerate some of the packet processing applications in the cloud, where [they’re being] managed and [organized],” McNamara said. “The race to solve data-centric problems requires agile and flexible solutions which can move, store and process data efficiently. Agilex FPGAs deliver customized connectivity and acceleration while delivering much-needed improvements in performance and power for diverse workloads.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Why The Lord of Rings: Living Card Game is going to Steam Early Access | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/15/the-lord-of-rings-living-card-game-steam-early-access"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Why The Lord of Rings: Living Card Game is going to Steam Early Access Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Fantasy Flight Interactive’s debut game is The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game , an adaptation of Fantasy Flight Games’ groundbreaking tabletop game that Asmodee Digital is publishing. Living Card Game is a trademark of the gamemaker, and this PC version will bring a different economic model to a $1 billion card game market — no randomized packs, with a focus on a narrative experience, not a competitive one full of foes wielding the hot netdeck of the week. It’s coming to Steam’s Early Access program sometime this quarter. And it makes sense that Fantasy Flight would choose this pathway. While some studios like how this enables them to make money by selling a game as they continue working on it, the model’s greatest value may be in how it enables designers to collect feedback from players. In our story earlier today, community manager Luke Walaszek mentioned several times how comments from people watching developers play on stream have already shaped development, and this is before folks are even playing it. Walaszek explained why Fantasy Flight took this route. He’s an edited transcript of that part of our interview. GamesBeat: Why are you doing Early Access? Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Luke Walaszek: We thought it was a good way to get the game in the hands of people before we go into full release. Fantasy Flight Games is a name that carries a lot of clout, but this being the first Fantasy Flight Interactive product, we wanted it to be a collaborative development. We get one shot to make our first game. We want to make sure it’s something that players agree with, that they feel really strongly about, and that the balance issues aren’t there. Tabletop games, card games — there’s a lot of issues with nerfing, a lot of issues with balancing. Early access gives us a period to really think about those numbers and tweak them and redesign as we continue to play the game. GamesBeat: Considering that this has been out for years as a tabletop game, why would you have to worry about balance? Walaszek: The tabletop game is very much a different beast than this Living Card Game in digital form. There are a lot of systems and numbers that have been eliminated in order to make sure it works on a digital platform. The game is notoriously difficult, and we wanted to both maintain that difficulty and make sure the game was accessible to new players. There are systems like an armor system in the tabletop game — are you familiar with the tabletop game? GamesBeat: I’ve played Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars: The Card Game , which I never thought was complicated. Walaszek: Yeah. There’s a bit more of complexity to Lord of the Rings , because you’re playing against an enemy that’s within the staging realm — Sauron has a bunch of if-then checks that you as the player have to keep track of. This spider is only going to attack this hero if it has this threat, but also Sauron has to have this many resources. Systems like that. The AI streamlines that and cuts down a lot of those numbers. Things like armor, that concept is gone. GamesBeat: So this is an adaptation, not a translation. Walaszek: Yes. This is not at all one-for-one translation. The idea was capturing the spirit. How would we do it in a modern game? GamesBeat: Why do you think video game players need a dumbed down version, not a direct translation? Walaszek: I don’t know if I would call it dumbed down so much as it would be that — Lord of the Rings was the first narrative LCG we made at Fantasy Flight. Since then, we’ve made great strides in how that system should work and how we would have probably approached it the first time we were designing it. At the same time there are players who love Lord of the Rings and would not want it to change at all. I think if we were to do a second edition of the game at any point, it would look like something a bit closer to this. GamesBeat: So this is more like — in a way, this is how you would envision it from the lessons you’ve learned. Walaszek: Yeah. And if we were starting out putting it out on a digital platform. GamesBeat: Like Games Workshop doing an updated version of Talisman, which Fantasy Flight handled on the board game side. It streamlined a lot of rules in the fourth edition. Walaszek: I’d shy away from specifically saying that this is our second edition or anything, because I don’t want to speak for Fantasy Flight Games. But I think that analogy is — there’s something to that, for sure. Like I said, there’s a lot of things going on in Lord of the Rings that, even compared to Arkham Horror , are handled in a different way. GamesBeat: How large is Fantasy Flight Interactive at the moment? Walaszek: Fantasy Flight Interactive is a studio of four people. We’re working with the designers at Fantasy Flight Games, up in Roseville, Minnesota, so we’re close enough. We’re also working with a development team, Virtuos, in China , handling some of the code. GamesBeat: You already have a lot of prebuilt art from the card game. But giving those cards actions and animating them, that’s the next step you have to do along with making the systems work? Walaszek: Yeah. The art, obviously, speaks for itself. It’s strong stuff. There are some new pieces you’ll see. I think maybe there might be one or two within the card pool here today. We’re doing other stuff with it, too. We have a big pool of freelancers to help us with art. But yeah, making sure animations are not overpowering, but are still engaging enough to make it feel like a living thing. GamesBeat: So while you have four people at home base, you have what, about 60 people between freelancers and Virtuos working on this? Walaszek: We have a big group of people working on it. GamesBeat: It’s not a little shop here. It’s the little shop supervising it all. Walaszek: Sometimes it can feel that way, but definitely, yeah, we’re a relatively large team. GamesBeat: Early access also accommodates that type of development model better. If you’re working with people from China to Roseville — there’s what, a 16-hour time difference? Walaszek: Yep, that sounds about right. Something like that. GamesBeat: Having this Early Access as a way to manage everything helps you take in community feedback. Walaszek: We have a lot of irons in the fire. We wear a lot of hats. That early access period is a great way for us to do that. GamesBeat: Early Access has been a boon to lots of smaller developers because it lets them fund a project as they go. But larger developers seem to say it’s not about the money so much as the feedback. How important is that community feedback? I know you already have people playing the alpha. Walaszek: Yeah, there are people internally playing. Nobody external has the game yet. There will be people who are working with us, but I’m not sure. Anyway, feedback. It’s already come in swathes. I host a bi-weekly stream of the game, and a community has already started to form around that, people who are very passionate about the tabletop game. That feedback has been hugely helpful. GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings. Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more. VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Cisco to acquire AI startup MindMeld for $125 million | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/11/cisco-acquires-ai-startup-mindmeld-for-125-million"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Cisco to acquire AI startup MindMeld for $125 million Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn MindMeld conversational AI platform Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Cisco today announced plans to acquire AI startup MindMeld for $125 million. MindMeld can create AI-powered conversational interfaces. MindMeld tech and its 10 patents surrounding AI and deep learning will be used to improve Cisco Spark and other Cisco collaboration products. The MindMeld platform for the creation of bots and voice-powered assistants launched last fall. The MindMeld API is currently being used by more than 1,200 companies around the world. Customers and investors include Google, Samsung, Intel, Telefonica, Liberty Global, IDG, USAA, Uniqlo, Spotify, and In-Q-Tel, a CIA investment fund. Learn how developers and brand marketers are using AI to grow their businesses, at MB 2017 in July 11-12 in SF. We cut through the hype to show how marketers are achieving real ROI. Get your 50% off Early Bird ticket by May 19! VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Cisco decided to acquire MindMeld, a company that’s been called “ Siri on steroids ,” because many bot experiences today are disappointing, IoT and applications VP Rowan Trollope wrote in a blog post today. “The rise of messaging apps, and the conversational bots which have followed, have given us a tremendous number of bots which are impressively bad at natural language conversation. They do OK with canned responses, but try to have a semi-unstructured conversation to get them to do something and the experience tends to be poor, frustrating and decidedly non-human,” he wrote. “Bringing the MindMeld team to Cisco is a giant leap forward in helping our customers experience the next generation of interactive, conversational interfaces.” Cisco collaboration software competition includes other enterprise chat players including Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Chat, and Slack. The $125 million acquisition in cash and assumed equity awards is expected to close by Q4 of 2017. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Cisco open-sources MindMeld conversational AI platform | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/09/cisco-open-sources-mindmeld-conversational-ai-platform"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Exclusive Cisco open-sources MindMeld conversational AI platform Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Cisco is today open-sourcing the MindMeld platform for data scientists to build a complete end-to-end conversational AI assistants, bots, and applications for enterprise customers. MindMeld has been used by brands like Starbucks and Uniqlo to make conversational agents as well as by InQTel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. The platform made its debut in November 2016, and just months later, MindMeld was acquired by Cisco for $125 million. MindMeld was used to create Cisco’s Webex assistant, which made its debut last month. MindMeld attempts to strike a balance between more advanced platforms like TensorFlow and conversational AI platforms accessible to non-technical developers like Amazon’s Lex and Google’s Dialogflow. MindMeld’s Python-based machine learning framework comes with documentation , can create bots that support rich media, and come with blueprints, which act as scaffolding for data scientists who want to get started quickly or tackle particular use cases. Food ordering, collaboration, home assistant, and media discovery templates at launch based on customer feedback. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Former MindMeld CEO and Cisco cognitive collaboration CTO Tim Tuttle told VentureBeat in a phone interview said the platform will be available for free on Cisco’s DevNet portal and includes a user manual with instructions to get started. “Most NLP platforms really only solve half the problem. They allow you to build machine learning models that can understand entities and do simple dialog management, but for most conversational applications that’s not enough. You can’t do NLP and dialog management,” Tuttle said. “For many real applications, you need to build a custom knowledge base and a question-answering system, and so our platform provides those pieces as well, and nearly all the other platforms don’t, so we think our platform is one of the most comprehensive, and we’re open-sourcing it so developers can learn how to build these applications.” To date, the MindMeld platform has only been used by a few hundred developers, Tuttle said. MindMeld could face an uphill battle to gain traction as solutions like Microsoft’s Bot Framework , Kasisto’s KAI , and others have been available for years. Tuttle said MindMeld distinguishes itself by providing advanced capabilities and the ability to handle large datasets. He also believes that, after years of experience with simpler tools, Fortune 500 companies are ready for more advanced AI tools to handle more applications. The framework may also appeal to companies that want to avoid sharing data with public cloud providers. “It’s really designed to allow enterprises that have their own proprietary data to use the data without sharing it to the cloud and deploy it in advanced conversational applications on premise and on site, so they can use their own data and don’t have to share it with these cloud providers, which is a consequence for some customers,” he said. MindMeld isn’t alone in its aspiration to grow adoption among enterprise customers. In a VentureBeat exclusive earlier this year, robotic process automation company UiPath said it’s considering the creation of its own conversational AI platform. UiPath recently raised $568 million at a $7 billion valuation. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Uber releases Plato for developing and testing conversational AI | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/16/uber-open-sources-plato-for-developing-and-testing-conversational-ai"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Uber releases Plato for developing and testing conversational AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Designing conversational AI isn’t as Sysiphean as it sounds. Tools like Google’s Dialogflow, Microsoft’s Bot Framework, and Amazon’s Lex make it easier than it used to be, and the folks at Uber hope to eliminate any remaining barriers with a development platform all their own. It’s called Plato Research Dialog System, and it was released today on GitHub. As the folks at Uber AI (Uber’s AI research division) explain in a lengthy blog post , Plato is designed for building, training, and deploying conversational AI agents to enable data scientists and hobbyists to collect data from prototypes and demonstration systems. It features a “clean” and “understandable” design, and it integrates with existing deep learning and model-tuning optimization frameworks that reduce the need to write code. This first iteration of Plato (version 0.1) supports interactions through speech, text, or structured information (e.g., dialogue acts), and each conversational agent can interact with human users, other agents, or data. (Plato can spawn multiple agents and ensure that input and output data is passed to each agent appropriately, and keep track of the conversation.) Additionally, Plato can incorporate pretrained models for every conversational agent component, and each component can be trained during interactions or from data. Plato accomplishes this with a modular design that breaks data processing into seven steps: speech recognition, language understanding, state tracking (aggregating information about what has been said and done so far), API calls (e.g., searching a database), dialogue policies (generating an abstract meaning of an agent’s response), language generation (converting said abstract meaning into text), and speech synthesis. Plato supports a range of conversational AI architectures, and each element can be trained using popular machine learning libraries such as Uber’s Ludwig, Google’s TensorFlow, and Facebook’s PyTorch. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Above: Plato’s generic agent architecture supports a wide range of customization, including joint components, speech-to-speech components, and text-to-text components. In a testament to its extensibility, Plato users can define their own architectures or plug their own components by providing a Python class name and package path to that module, as well as the model’s initialization arguments. So long as the modules are listed in the order they should be executed, Plato handles the rest, including wrapping the input and output, chaining and executing the modules (either serially or in parallel), and facilitating the dialogues. When it comes to data logging, Plato keeps track of events in a structure called the Dialogue Episode Recorder, which contains information about previous dialogue states, actions taken, current dialogue states, and more. There’s even a custom field that can be used to track anything that doesn’t fall under the defined categories. “We believe that Plato has the capability to more seamlessly train conversational agents across deep learning frameworks, from Ludwig and TensorFlow to PyTorch, Keras, and other open source projects, leading to improved conversational AI technologies across academic and industry applications,” wrote Uber AI researchers Alexandros Papangelis, Yi-Chia Wang, Mahdi Namazifar, and Chandra Khatri. “[We’ve] leverage[d] Plato to easily train a conversational agent how to ask for restaurant information and another agent how to provide such information; over time, their conversations become more and more natural.” The release of Plato follows the debut of the aforementioned Ludwig , an open source “toolbox” built on top of Google’s TensorFlow framework that allows users to train and test AI models without having to write code. Last December, Uber brought Horovod , a framework for distributed training across multiple machines that its developers have used internally to support self-driving vehicles, fraud detection, and trip forecasting, in open source to the LF Deep Learning Foundation. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"MIT robot sorts recycling and trash by touch | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/10/mit-robot-sorts-recycling-and-trash-by-touch"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages MIT robot sorts recycling and trash by touch Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Researchers from MIT and Yale University have devised a method to use robots to pick out paper, plastic, and glass as a way to sort recycling. You may presume a trash-sorting robot would rely on computer vision to recognize the difference between different materials. The discipline to give machines sight is the primary tech behind AMP Robotics system that’s been used at a Denver, Colorado recycling facility , as well as TrashBot and Oscar , AI sorting trash cans being sold for use in homes and commercial offices. Instead, the RoCycle system relies solely on sensors and soft robotics to identify and sort glass, plastic, and metal through touch alone. “Computer vision alone will not be able to solve the problem of giving machines human-like perception, so being able to use tactile input is of vital importance,” MIT professor Daniela Rus said in a statement provided to VentureBeat. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Relying on a purely optical object-sorting process introduces inaccuracy because material type is not a visual property, but a tactile one, researchers note in the paper “Automated Recycling Separation Enabled by Soft Robotic Material Classification.” As a greater push is made for increased sustainability, durable versions of previously disposable items are increasingly common and visually indistinguishable from the disposable versions, such as plasticware that looks metallic. Researchers next plan to incorporate a camera and computer vision in conjunction with RoCycle’s sense of touch to improve its accuracy. RoCycle was 85% accurate in its ability to identify and sort the three materials through touch alone when in a fixed position. Initial tests with 27 objects found RoCycle was 63% accurate when collecting items from a conveyor belt, the way trash and recycling is often sorted today. RoCycle can be attached to any robotic arm. Its gripping appendage is made from a material called auxetics that gets wider when pulled on. The use of auxetics also allows a robotic hand to conform to an object’s surface and to form in twisted strands. A sensor is first used to determine the size of an object, and pressure sensors measure how much force is exerted to grasp the object. This information is in turn used to determine what kind of material a robotic arm picks up. The research, supported by Amazon, JD, the Toyota Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), will be presented later this month at the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics in Seoul, South Korea. Properly sorting and disposal of trash and recycling has become an even bigger priority since last year, when China declared it would no longer be willing to receive plastic recycling imports in 2017. Soft robotics has been used to create elastic machines capable of wiggling into tight spaces, and are being considered as a way to help care for the elderly. MIT researchers have introduced a number of novel approaches to robotics use in recent months, including a gripper attached to a robotic arm inspired by oragami that can pick up objects 120 times its weight , and methods for teaching a robot to pick up objects it’s never seen before. Last year, MIT researchers also devised ways to control robots with your brain. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Uber merges its China operations with Didi Chuxing in $35 billion deal (updated) | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2016/07/31/uber-reportedly-merges-its-china-operations-with-didi-chuxing-in-35-billion-deal"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Uber merges its China operations with Didi Chuxing in $35 billion deal (updated) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Uber is believed to have conceded domination of China’s ride-hailing market to rival Didi Chuxing, but it’s not walking away empty-handed. It’s now confirmed that Uber will merge its Uber China service with Didi’s in a deal that values a combined company at $35 billion. In return, Uber will receive a $1 billion investment. The deal was reported by Bloomberg , which said that investors in Uber China will be receiving 20 percent of the new Didi Chuxing. With this move, Uber will likely save itself quite a bit of money that it’ll be able to invest into other markets, thereby accelerating its growth. The company was said to have been losing $1 billion a year in China in its ongoing battle with Didi. In February, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told Betakit: “We have a fierce competitor that’s unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they’re buying up market share. I wish the world wasn’t that way.” The irony of Uber’s departure from China isn’t lost on anyone, as the company has been known to drive out competitors such as Hailo and Sidecar in the U.S. But in an added twist, Uber has made a deal with a major player, and also investor , in Lyft’s ridesharing alliance. In a blog post that Bloomberg obtained, Kalanick explained that “Uber and Didi Chuxing are investing billions of dollars in China, and both companies have yet to turn a profit there. Getting to profitability is the only way to build a sustainable business that can best serve Chinese riders, drivers, and cities over the long term.” Didi Chuxing was born last year in a bid to shake off any impression of it being an “illegal taxi service.” China’s government had been cracking down on ridesharing, but last week it legalized ride-hailing services. Now that Uber is freeing up capital, how will it spend it? Expanding into new markets? Focusing more on autonomous vehicles through its Carnegie Mellon program? Or will it double-down in key existing markets to further dominate its competition? Update at 10:16 p.m. Pacific on Sunday: A blog post from Kalanick announcing the deal is said to be making its way through WeChat. It says that Uber was doing more than 150 million rides a month in China, but that “being successful is about listening to your head as well as following your heart.” Here’s @travisk blog post on Didi/Uber deal, which is all over China’s WeChat: Here https://t.co/B2KMIofUp3 pic.twitter.com/fl3lS9Trth — Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) August 1, 2016 Update at 10:20 a.m. Pacific on Monday: Didi Chuxing has confirmed the acquisition of Uber China. Uber will receive 5.89 percent of the combined company “with preferred equity interest which is equal to a 17.7 percent economic interest in Didi Chuxing.” Kalanick will join the board of Didi. Uber China will retain its independent branding, but Didi will integrate the managerial and technological experience and expertise of both companies. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"China's Didi launches ride-hailing service in Mexico, one of Uber's biggest strongholds | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/23/chinas-didi-launches-ride-hailing-service-in-mexico-one-of-ubers-biggest-strongholds"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages China’s Didi launches ride-hailing service in Mexico, one of Uber’s biggest strongholds Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn DiDi's new Driver Center in Toluca Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (Didi) has officially opened for business in Mexico, one of Uber’s biggest strongholds globally. Didi is the market leader in China by some distance, swallowing up rivals such as Uber and raising large chunks of money to fund its global ambitions. So far, Didi has not had much of a global etaxi presence, though it did acquire Brazil’s 99 earlier this year and has announced a partnership with SoftBank in Japan to launch a ride-hailing platform in the next year. The company also expanded into Taiwan via a franchise model targeting local taxi drivers, and it has invested in players elsewhere , including Careem, which is big across EMEA. News emerged earlier this year that Didi was working toward a Mexico launch, its first real own-brand launch outside of China. Today, Didi Express was switched on in Toluca, the capital of the State of Mexico, which is the most populous state in the country. Above: The Didi app launches in Toluca, Mexico on April 23 Didi Chuxing came to fruition following a merger between local rivals Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache in 2015. Much like Uber, Didi offers smartphone-based car services such as carpooling, taxis, and premium cars with drivers. Didi said it started hiring drivers in Toluca earlier this month, though reports emerged in March that the Chinese tech titan was already poaching management staff from Uber in Mexico. Mexico is one of Uber’s most profitable markets, one in which it has claimed a near monopoly on ride-sharing in recent years. With Didi snapping up Brazil’s 99 in January and news of Didi’s impending Mexico launch, Latin America is emerging as a major battleground in the ride-sharing wars. That battle will intensify from today, with Didi planning additional services across Mexico “later this year,” according to a press release. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Yandex leads Europe‘s autonomous taxi push with public test launch in Russia | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/28/yandex-leads-europes-autonomous-taxi-push-with-public-test-launch-in-russia"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Yandex leads Europe‘s autonomous taxi push with public test launch in Russia Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Russian internet giant Yandex has announced a new autonomous ride-hailing service in the fledgling tech-focused town of Innopolis. Though various car companies across Europe are currently pursuing autonomous car programs, this is the first time such a service has launched to the public on the continent. Innopolis was set up as a technology park in 2012, with a focus on supporting high-tech industries. It was later granted town status ahead of its official launch in 2015, and there are plans to develop the area over several stages — spread across 120 hectares — with a university serving as the core focal point. Above: Innopolis: A new Russian high-tech town Yandex, which is often referred to as the Google of Russia, has been doubling down on its on-demand ride-hailing efforts, recently merging with Uber’s service in Eastern Europe to create a new $4 billion entity. Last year, Yandex.taxi also announced its self-driving car project , and in the intervening months it has been testing the vehicles on public roads. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The company’s push into public-facing autonomous ride-hailing will be modest at first, however, and will constitute just two self-driving vehicles. The service will be offered for free, though, and — as with similar initiatives around the world — a safety driver will be present inside the vehicle at all times. Above: Yandex has launched the first autonomous ride-hailing service in Europe Autonomous taxi services have already been tested in a number of markets around the world. U.S.-based autonomous car startup NuTonomy launched a self-driving car service in Singapore back in 2016 , while both Uber and Google’s sister company, Waymo, are continuing to trial similar services in various markets. In Asia, self-driving taxi trials kicked off in Tokyo this week with an eye to rolling the service out more extensively ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games. Elsewhere, news emerged a few months back that Waymo is gearing up to bring its autonomous taxi service to Europe. Though the population of Innopolis weighs in at just a few thousand people, its status as a high-tech hub makes it a prime test bed for autonomous taxi services. Around 100 people have signed up to participate in the driverless taxi trials, and they will be able to choose from a number of pre-set destinations, including the university, stadium, and apartment blocks. The next step for the test will be to open the service up more extensively, with feedback from the trial phase used to inform future expansions. “Our Yandex self-driving team plans to later expand the autonomous ride-hailing service to include more destinations, additional vehicles, and removing the safety driver, in addition to improving the service based on user feedback,” the company said in a blog post. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Toyota and SoftBank partner to develop self-driving car services | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/04/toyota-and-softbank-partner-to-develop-self-driving-car-services"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Toyota and SoftBank partner to develop self-driving car services Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Toyota President Akio Toyoda and Executive Vice President Shigeki Tomoyama pose for a photograph with SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son and SoftBank Representative Director and CTO Junichi Miyakawa during joint news conference in Tokyo. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. ( Reuters ) — Toyota and SoftBank said they will team up to develop car services that rely on self-driving technology, such as hospital shuttles, as they envision a future in which fewer people drive their own vehicles. The partnership between Japan’s top automaker and its most influential tech giant shows that even big well-funded players fear being left behind in the race to develop autonomous and connected cars. “SoftBank alone and automakers alone can’t do everything,” said Junichi Miyakawa, chief technology officer at SoftBank Corp who will be CEO of the new company. “We want to work to help people with limited access to transportation.” The announcement adds to a slew of deals and discussions aimed at sharing costs and securing expertise that has resulted in myriad pairings between global automakers, ride-hailing companies as well as major tech firms. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Honda said on Wednesday it would invest $2.75 billion and take a 5.7 percent stake in General Motors’s Cruise self-driving vehicle unit, in which SoftBank is also an investor. On the same day, Daimler and Renault said they may expand their cooperation to batteries, self-driving vehicles and mobility services. Toyota and SoftBank’s new venture will start with 2 billion yen ($17.5 million) in capital, with SoftBank owning just over half of the business. It will be called MONET, short for mobility network, and potential car services could include meal deliveries, shuttle buses as well as vehicles that offer onboard medical examinations, they said. While both firms have been independently developing technologies for self-driving vehicles and car sharing, and each have investments in ride-hailing firms Uber, Grab and Didi Chuxing, this is first time they have come together. “We are trying to take traditional car making into new fields,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters. “We realised that Softbank shares the same vision when it comes to the future of cars, so it’s time that we partner together.” Toyota, which has been mainly developing automated driving and artificial intelligence technologies in-house, expects the future will include convoys of shuttle bus-sized, self-driving multi-purpose vehicles used, for instance, as pay-per-use mobile restaurants and hotels. It has been developing a service called “e-Palette” based on this concept. Amazon, Didi, Uber and Pizza Hut are early partners in the project, and Toyota has said it plans to use the service to ship athletes and guests around during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. MONET will roll out an autonomous driving service using e-Palette by the second half of the 2020s, the companies said. SoftBank will provide technology to collect and analyze transportation data to ensure cars are efficiently dispatched when and where they’re needed, they said. SoftBank has its own autonomous vehicle unit , SB Drive, which has been developing self-driving technology for buses. ( Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Sam Nussey; Additional reporting by Yoshiyasu Shida and Maki Shiraki; Writing by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Edwina Gibbs ) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Alphabet's Waymo unveils its first commercial driverless taxi service: Waymo One | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/05/alphabets-waymo-unveils-its-first-commercial-driverless-taxi-service-waymo-one"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Alphabet’s Waymo unveils its first commercial driverless taxi service: Waymo One Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. Alphabet’s self-driving car unit Waymo today took a huge step toward launching its first public self-driving taxi service. Waymo has been testing a driverless car service in Phoenix for a while already, but today the company officially lifted the lid on its first commercial service that riders can actually pay for. Waymo One, as the service is called, will work much like Uber and other popular ride-hailing apps. After Waymo One gives you a price estimate based on your starting and end points, you can beckon a car that will transport you from A to B. However, Waymo One isn’t yet available for everyone. Initially, only riders who were involved in the early stages of the trial program will have access, though plans are afoot to extend the service to more people in the future. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Those already accepted into the program will be able to bring along two adults and a child. Above: Waymo One app Google first started testing autonomous cars on San Francisco roads as part of a stealth project in 2009. The unit was rebranded to Waymo in 2016 and spun out as an Alphabet subsidiary led by John Krafcik, former president and CEO of Hyundai North America. Waymo recently claimed 10 million self-driven miles on public roads after doubling the number of miles in just eight months. Road to launch Waymo One cars will be available round the clock in the Metro Phoenix area. It is worth noting that although the cars are fully self-driving, a human “driver” will be present at first. Waymo isn’t really pitching these as “safety” drivers, since it doesn’t anticipate their having to take control — it’s more about peace of mind for people apprehensive about stepping inside a driverless vehicle. The company explained: “Waymo-trained drivers will be riding along to supervise our vehicles for riders’ comfort and convenience.” Similar to Uber and other ride-hailing services, you will also be able to request support from within the app and review the ride afterwards. Above: Waymo One: Review your ride A number of public autonomous taxi trials have taken place over the past couple of years. However, the launch of a fully commercial service in the U.S. by Waymo — one of the autonomous vehicle sector’s leading players — represents a notable milestone for the fledgling industry. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Didi plans Chile, Peru, and Colombia launches to take on Uber | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/16/didi-plans-chile-peru-and-colombia-launches-to-take-on-uber"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Didi plans Chile, Peru, and Colombia launches to take on Uber Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Zhongshan, China-April 8, 2018. Person booking a car on Didi ChuXing. Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship. Learn more. ( Reuters ) — Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is planning to take on U.S. rival Uber in some of Latin America’s fastest-growing markets, recruiting managers in Chile, Peru and Colombia, according to job postings and a company official. Didi has moved senior executives from China to lead its expansion in markets like Chile and Peru, and began in recent weeks advertising for driver operations, crisis management, marketing and business development personnel in those countries, an analysis of LinkedIn postings show. Didi’s widening expansion, if successful, could make for a bumpier ride for San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc in Latin America, one of its fastest growth regions, as it gets ready to go public as soon as later this year. The two firms are already battling in Brazil , where Didi bought local start-up 99 in January last year, and Mexico, where the Chinese firm lured drivers with higher pay and bonuses for signing up other drivers and passengers. Didi is China’s dominant ride-hailing firm and is backed by investors including Japan’s SoftBank Group. In 2016, Didi bought Uber’s local Chinese operations following a bruising two-year battle for domination in China. The push comes as Didi is laying off staff in China as it grapples with regulatory scrutiny, reportedly significant financial losses and public backlash over the murder of two of its customers, sources told Reuters. The firm’s new Chile public affairs manager, Felipe Contreras, who was previously Uber’s corporate communications chief in Chile, confirmed reports Didi was looking to hire a senior executive from Chilean cellular phone company WOM to lead its engagement with government and public policy operations. “We haven’t announced a date; this is internal to the company,” he said when asked about the timing of the hiring. Contreras confirmed the launch plans and told Reuters that the company’s aim was to be a “market leader” in Chile based on “quality”, in a market where Uber, Spain’s Cabify, and Greece’s Beat already transport thousands of passengers a day. Didi is still mulling the “best time” to launch its local service, he said, saying: “We are still in the planning and recruitment phase.” Chile’s government has yet to pass a law regulating ride-sharing applications, resulting in a legal gray area which sees Uber, Cabify, and Beat drivers routinely fined by the police for operating without public transport licenses. The law is still at committee stage and would need approval by both Chile’s lower and upper chambers, a process which could take up to a year. Contreras said the timeline for Didi’s launch would “not necessarily” hinge on the law’s eventual passing. “We are studying all the variables,” he said. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Yandex promises 100 driverless cars on the road by 2020 | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/11/yandex-plans-to-operate-100-driverless-cars-globally-by-2020"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Yandex promises 100 driverless cars on the road by 2020 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Russian tech giant Yandex has been testing autonomous vehicles on public roads since December 2017, starting in Moscow and later expanding to Innopolis and Skolkovo, Russia, as well as Las Vegas. The program’s next phase saw cars reach Tel Aviv’s city limits, and now, after five months of successful testing in Israel, the company is prepping for further expansion. Yandex today announced that it’ll open a local Tel Aviv office with a team of self-driving engineers and that it plans to operate upwards of 100 driverless cars worldwide by the end of this year. “Combined, the driving conditions and challenges of [new] locations ultimately help advance our self-driving system to better operate in new environments,” wrote Yandex in a blog post. “We’re excited to continue our work building a scalable autonomous technology that can operate in any number of driving conditions.” Toward that end, Yandex notes, there’s more roundabouts in Israel compared with the U.S. and Russia, and that Tel Aviv drivers often park their cars wherever they can find a spot in the city’s narrow, winding roads. Unlike drivers in Moscow, which tend to exceed speed limits by up to 12 miles per hour (the minimum threshold to exceed in order to get a ticket), Israelis are less likely to speed on average. And two-wheeled vehicles — namely bicycles, scooters, and motorbikes — are far more common in downtown Tel Aviv neighborhoods than in Russian metros. “These are just a few examples of the challenges and opportunities we’re encountering across our test locations as we advance our self-driving technology to be universal and scalable,” wrote Yandex. “By teaching our tech how to process numerous road hazards around the world, such as two-wheeled vehicles, pedestrians, erratic driving, and challenging weather, we are better preparing our self-driving car to operate in new locations.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Work on Yandex’s platform began in earnest in 2016, when the company’s 120-person self-driving team started piecing together components atop a Toyota Prius V chassis. What emerged is largely custom, from the sizable under-the-trunk PC to the roof-mounted sensor stack consisting of three Velodyne lidars (sensors that measure the distance to target objects by illuminating them with laser light and measuring the reflected pulses), five cameras, eight radars, and GPS. Currently, a small team within Yandex handcrafts maps of areas ahead of deployments, but the company expects the process will become more or less automatic in the future. To date, Yandex says its autonomous taxis have given over 2,000 rides with in-car safety drivers who keep tabs on route progress (along with teleoperators), and within four years, the company intends to build a car without a steering wheel that’s capable of “human-level” driving in certain cities. Yandex has competition in Daimler, which last summer obtained a permit from the Chinese government allowing it to test autonomous cars powered by Baidu’s Apollo platform on public roads in China, and Beijing-based Pony.ai , which has raised $214 million in venture capital and in early April launched a driverless taxi pilot in Guangzhou. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo, which launched a commercial driverless taxi service in December 2018, says it’s now servicing over 1,000 riders with a fleet of more than 600 cars. Startup Optimus Ride said earlier this year that it would build out a small autonomous shuttle fleet in New York City, following news of driverless car company Drive.ai’s expansion into Arlington, Texas. GM’s Cruise Automation has been testing an autonomous taxi service for employees in San Francisco and plans to launch a public service this year. Other competitors include Tesla, Zoox, Aptiv, May Mobility, Pronto.ai, Aurora, and Nuro, to name a few others. According to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025, and Research and Markets anticipates that there will be some 20 million autonomous cars in operation in the U.S. by 2030. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Uber rolls out next-generation self-driving Volvo | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/12/uber-rolls-out-next-generation-self-driving-volvo"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Uber rolls out next-generation self-driving Volvo Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. (Reuters) — Uber on Wednesday will unveil its newest Volvo self-driving car in Washington as it works to eventually deploy vehicles without drivers under some limited conditions. Uber said the new production XC90 will be assembled by Volvo Cars in Sweden and have human controls like steering wheels and brake pedals, but added it has factory-installed steering and braking systems designed for computer rather than human control. Other companies are also working to deploy self-driving vehicles in limited areas as the race to push out autonomous cars across the globe heats up. Ford’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle unit, Argo AI , launched its new fleet of self-driving test vehicles — Ford Fusion Hybrid — in Detroit on Wednesday, expanding to five U.S. cities. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The No. 2 U.S. automaker also opened a research center in Tel Aviv, joining a growing number of major automakers and suppliers setting up shop in the Israeli tech hub. General Motors in January 2018 sought permission from U.S. regulators to deploy a ride-sharing fleet of driverless cars without steering wheels or other human controls before the end of 2019, but is still struggling to win regulatory approval. Alphabet Inc’s Waymo unit is operating a robotaxi service in Arizona and said last month it is partnering with Lyft Inc to serve more riders. Carmakers have struggled to maintain profit margins faced with the rising costs of making electric, connected and autonomous cars. They are setting up alliances and outside investors to combat spiraling development costs. Previously, Uber had purchased about 250 Volvo XC90 SUVs and retrofitted them for self-driving use. The new vehicles — known by the internal code number 519G and under development for several years – are safer, more reliable and will “soon” replace the older vehicles in Uber’s fleet, said Eric Meyhofer, the head of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group. “This is about going to production,” said Meyhofer in an interview at an Uber conference in Washington Tuesday. The new vehicle also has several back-up systems for both steering and braking functions as well as battery back-up power and new cybersecurity systems. Uber is not ready to deploy vehicles without human controls, Meyhofer said. “We’re still in a real hybrid state,” Meyhofer said. “We have to get there and we’re not going to get to thousands of cars in a city overnight. It’s going to be a slower introduction.” The new XC90 vehicles have an interior fish-eye camera to scan for lost items, Uber said. They also do not have sunroofs since the self-driving vehicles have large sensors on the roof and are equipped with auto-close doors to prevent an unsafe departure. Uber, which has taken delivery of about a dozen prototypes of the new vehicle but has not yet deployed them on public roads, said the car’s “self-driving system will one day allow for safe, reliable autonomous ridesharing without the need” for a safety driver. Asked if Uber will deploy self-driving cars without safety drivers in limited areas in the next few years, Meyhofer said “yes — way before that.” But he added that Uber wants to be in “the good graces of public trust and regulatory trust” before making the business decision to deploy. In December, Uber resumed limited self-driving car testing on public roads in Pittsburgh, nine months after it suspended the program following a deadly accident in Arizona. In March 2018, authorities in Arizona suspended Uber’s ability to test its self-driving cars after one of its XC90 cars hit and killed a woman crossing the street at night in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Uber’s largest testing hub. The crash was the first death attributed to a self-driving vehicle. In March 2019, prosecutors in Arizona said the company was not criminally liable in the self-driving crash and would not pursue charges. Uber ended testing in Arizona but plans to eventually resume testing in Toronto and San Francisco, Meyhofer said. The death prompted significant safety concerns about the nascent self-driving car industry, which is racing to get vehicles into commercial use. Volvo Cars chief executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement that “by the middle of the next decade we expect one-third of all cars we sell to be fully autonomous”. Volvo Cars, which is owned by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, will use a similar autonomous base vehicle concept for the introduction of its first commercially available autonomous drive technology in the early 2020s. Volvo and Uber said in 2017 that the rideshare company planned to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo from 2019 to 2021 using the self-driving system developed by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group. An Uber spokeswoman said Tuesday that the company plans “to work with Volvo on tens of thousands of vehicles in the future.” (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Bernard Orr) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"China's Didi Chuxing spins off autonomous driving unit | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/05/chinas-didi-chuxing-spins-off-autonomous-driving-unit"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages China’s Didi Chuxing spins off autonomous driving unit Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Amid growing pessimism over the pace of autonomous vehicle progress, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has decided to move more aggressively by spinning out its self-driving car unit. Today the company announced that its autonomous driving unit will become a standalone company, a move designed to bring greater focus to research, product design, and the search for business use cases. “Autonomous driving will greatly enhance the safety and efficiency of travel and help cities to be smarter and more sustainable,” said Didi chair and CEO Cheng Wei in a statement. “Technology serves people; in the future, people’s transportation needs in different scenarios will be met by the combination of seamless autonomous driving technology and human driving services that are indispensable for their quality and warmth.” The move comes amid a broader rethinking of overly optimistic predictions for autonomous vehicles that cropped up as companies like Uber and Google poured money into research. Observers and automotive executives have begun throwing cold water on the rosiest predictions, cautioning that the technology has a long road ahead before it will be truly reliable. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! One such reality check came in July, when Volkswagon said it would invest $1 billion in cash and give its European self-driving unit to Ford-backed self-driving vehicle startup Argo. The deal was seen as an acknowledgment that the companies would need to share development costs, given the extended timeline the technology faces. “We overestimated the arrival of autonomous vehicles,” Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in April, according to the New York Times. But Didi is apparently eager to go faster. The company created its self-driving unit in 2016 and now has 200 people working on the technology, with the staff split between China and the U.S. Didi CTO Zhang Bo will lead the new company. While still trying to leverage the ride-hailing platform for data and insights, it will also push ahead on developing core technologies and searching for partnerships among automotive companies. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Waymo expands driverless car testing to Florida | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/20/waymo-expands-driverless-car-testing-to-florida"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Waymo expands driverless car testing to Florida Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A self-driving vehicle developed by Google parent company Alphabet's Waymo. Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Google parent company Alphabet’s Waymo today announced that it will soon begin piloting autonomous cars in Florida, expanding from its initial test cities of Novi, Kirkland, Washington, San Francisco, and Phoenix. The company says in the coming weeks it will bring both its modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans and a Jaguar I-Pace to the Sunshine State to drive on a closed track in heavy rain, ahead of tests on public Miami roads later in the month. “At Miami-Dade County, we are constantly exploring ways to improve and provide more mobility options for our community,” said Miami-Dade County department of transportation and public works director Alice N. Bravo. “I’m supportive of Waymo’s presence in the county as they continue to push technological boundaries and discover new ways to help us move.” Waymo says its cars will be manually driven by trained operators, giving the team an opportunity to collect real-world driving data in heavy rain. When the cars venture beyond the closed track, they’ll mainly drive on highways between Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, and Miami. Waymo points out that during the hurricane season in the summer months, Miami is one of the wettest cities in the U.S., averaging an annual 61.9 inches of rain. These conditions and the resulting slick roads create noise for its vehicles’ sensors, Waymo explains, and can also result in other drivers behaving differently. “Testing allows us to understand the unique driving conditions and get a better handle on how rain affects our own vehicle movements, too,” the company said in a blog post. “Both human-driven and self-driving cars need to drive in many different weather conditions.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! It’s been over six months since Waymo launched Waymo One , its commercial driverless taxi fleet of over 600 cars with safety drivers behind the wheel, and the company says the fleet has grown to serve over 1,000 riders in that time. Separately, Waymo recently revealed that its cars have driven 10 billion autonomous miles in simulation and 10 million real-world autonomous miles in 25 cities. Weeks after Waymo announced it would dedicate a factory in southeast Michigan to the production of level 4 autonomous cars — that is, cars capable of driving without human supervision in most conditions — the company said it had settled on a location in Detroit. Separately, Waymo partnered with Lyft to deploy 10 of its vehicles on the ride-hailing platform in Phoenix. Waymo currently operates a roughly 20-person, 53,000-square-foot office in Novi, Michigan that opened in 2016, and in Detroit it tests driverless Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans that are produced in Windsor, Canada and shipped to Novi, where they’re outfitted with hardware and software by Waymo and Chrysler engineers. In Chandler, Arizona, Waymo last year expanded its full service center — which houses operations and support teams, including fleet technicians, dispatch, response, and rider support — to 60,000 square feet. More recently, the company pledged to open an 85,000-square-foot technical service center in the city of Mesa, Arizona, near Phoenix’s East Valley, and it expects to “more than double” its capacity to maintain the fleet of cars in Waymo One. Waymo also announced last year that it would add up to 62,000 minivans to its fleet and said it had signed a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to equip 20,000 of the automaker’s Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs with its autonomous system by 2020. Waymo has competition in Yandex, Tesla, Zoox, Aptiv, May Mobility, Pronto.ai, Aurora, Nuro, and GM’s Cruise Automation, to name just a few. Daimler last summer obtained a permit from the Chinese government that allows it to test autonomous cars powered by Baidu’s Apollo platform on public roads in China. Beijing-based Pony.ai , which has raised $214 million in venture capital, in early April launched a driverless taxi pilot in Guangzhou. And startup Optimus Ride this month built out a small autonomous shuttle fleet in New York City, becoming the first to do so. According to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025, and Research and Markets anticipates that there will be some 20 million autonomous cars in operation in the U.S. by 2030. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Salesforce's AI grasps commonsense reasoning | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/27/salesforces-ai-grasps-commonsense-reasoning"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Salesforce’s AI grasps commonsense reasoning Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Sophisticated AI models are capable of performing incredible feats, from predicting which patients are likely to develop breast cancer and spotting early signs of glaucoma from eye scans to hallucinating fake landscapes that look indistinguishable from the real thing. But despite their versatility, they share a common shortcoming: a lack of commonsense reasoning. Try telling a machine learning algorithm to predict what will happen when you push a ball off a table or when a person trips down the stairs. Unless it has been explicitly “taught” laws of physics through training on countless examples, it will struggle. One solution is enumerating logic and applying it to a given AI model’s decision-making, but that’s a time-consuming and monotonous chore that doesn’t account for the many exceptions to probabilistic heuristics. That’s why scientists at Salesforce investigated an alternative approach, which they detail in a paper accepted into the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: training a system on sequences of explanations for commonsense reasoning and highlighted annotations. They propose a new open source corpus — Common Sense Explanations (CoS-E) — for training and inference with a novel machine learning framework (Commonsense Auto-Generated Explanation, or CAGE), which they say improves performance on question-and-answer benchmarks by 10% over baselines and demonstrates an aptitude for reasoning in out-of-domain tasks. “It turns out that, despite all the recent breakthroughs over the last decade, it’s been historically really hard to capture commonsense knowledge in a form that algorithms can actually make useful,” Salesforce chief scientist and coauthor on the paper Richard Socher told VentureBeat in a phone interview. “The reason I’m so excited for [the paper] here is that they have a first approach to capture commonsense knowledge, and it turns out that language models — simple models that read text and try to predict the next word and make sense of the future to autocomplete sentences — capture this commonsense knowledge.” Compiling a data set Devising the model was a multistep process. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! To procure commonsense explanations for CoS-E, which is divided into two parts — a question token split and a random split — the team turned to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and tasked human participants with explaining which of several answers was “most appropriate,” given ground-truth answers. Annotators highlighted relevant words in questions that justified the ground truths and then provided brief, open-ended explanations based on the highlighted justifications that served as the reasoning behind the questions. For example, for the prompt “What could people do that involves talking?” the crowdworkers had to select from these answers: “confession,” “carnival,” or “state park.” Their explanation for “confession” might be “confession is the only vocal action,” and they might supply the reason “people talk to each other” or the rationale “people talk to people.” Above: Salesforce CoS-E and CAGE examples. Socher notes that CoS-E’s effectiveness isn’t constrained by the examples. CAGE achieves state-of-the-art results when trained on it, implying that even when drawing only on explanations that don’t have any word overlap with any of the answer choices, performance exceeds that of models that don’t use CoS-E. “Usually, a lot of the tasks and data sets we look at have all the information [an AI model] needs to make a certain call,” explained Socher. “But [the model will] never be able to enumerate all the different possible types of reasoning to be able to do well on the test set, because the test set includes completely empty domains and things [the model has] never seen before.” Devising a model So how did CAGE come about? Well, coauthor Nazneen Rajini and team drew examples from Common sense Question Answering (CQA), a corpus containing multiple choice questions for developing common sense reasoning models. They paired these with corresponding CoS-E explanations from a natural language model conditioned on the question-and-answer choices. Next, they concatenated the explanations to the end of the original questions, answer choices, and outputs and then fed them to a second commonsense reasoning model. In this way, the team considerably extended the capabilities of CQA, which was designed to benchmark performance on tasks requiring proficiency in pronoun resolution. Whereas results from CQA tend to be somewhat ambiguous with respect to whether commonsense reasoning is actually being performed, the researchers assert that CoS-E’s explanations are explicit and can be used to study, analyze, and evaluate models’ reasoning capabilities. The aforementioned language model was OpenAI’s GPT, a multilayer transformer decoder and the forebear of the highly capable GPT-2 model released last year. As with all deep neural networks, GPT contains neurons (mathematical functions loosely modeled after biological neurons) arranged in interconnected layers that transmit “signals” from input data and slowly adjust the synaptic strength — weights — of each connection. (That’s how the model extracts features and learns to make predictions.) Uniquely, however, it has attention: Every output element is connected to every input element, and the weightings between them are calculated dynamically. For the commonsense reasoning model — a classification module that learned to perform predictions on the CQA task — the team chose Google’s BERT, which is unique in that it’s both bidirectional (allowing it to access context from past and future directions) and unsupervised (meaning it can ingest data that’s neither classified nor labeled). The team fine-tuned a pretrained GTP model on a combination of CQA and CoS-E data sets and experimented with language generation in two settings: “reasoning,” where the language model conditioned on questions, answer choices, and the human-generated explanation but not the actual predicted label, and “rationalization,” where the model conditioned on the predicted labels, along with the input to generate rationalizations. The researchers found that reasoning outperformed the state-of-the-art on CQA by 10%, while rationalization bested the current top-ranking model by 6%. The explanations in the rationalization setup can’t be considered commonsense reasoning, Rajani and colleagues note, because the model had access to the ground truth labels to input questions during training. Instead, they consider it an interpretability framework — a means of making the system’s decisions more transparent. “The idea behind explainable AI is that you’d like to have an AI model to generate explanations for their decisions, and the most obvious reason for this is to gain users’ trust so that users can interact with them and they understand them,” Rajini told VentureBeat. Surprising results With framework and data set in hand, the team moved on to the next experimental step: validation. On CQA, they say that CAGE achieved accuracy of roughly 65%, which they claim is state-of-the-art. And during a test in which the commonsense question-answering model was provided access to explanations that weren’t conditioned on the ground truth (during both training and validation), accuracy jumped nearly 10% from 64% to 72%. Interestingly, the team found that when explanations consisted only of justifications, the best accuracy the model could reach was 53%, in contrast to the 85% hit by models trained on open-ended explanations. Adding questions to the mix boosted performance to 70%, and to 90% when provided at inference time. The team separately carried out a test on two out-of-domain data sets: SWAG, a corpus with multiple choice questions about “a rich spectrum of grounded situations,” and Story Cloze, a collection of five-sentence “commonsense” stories. Model performance was slightly worse across the board, but the outputs exhibited surprisingly little in the way of grammatical or syntactical errors and contained information relevant to the scenarios at hand. In the case of the SWAG data set, where each question was a video caption with choices about what might happen next, generated explanations seemed to be grounded in given images — even though the language model wasn’t trained on SWAG. Above: Samples generated by CAGE. “It shows that it’s worthwhile for the [research] community to think about collecting explanations as they’re collecting new data sets,” said paper coauthor Bryan McCann. “[It turns out that] actually going to the trouble of having humans write a little sentence about why they [chose an answer to a question] will potentially be very useful … for accessibility, interpretability, and performance as well.” Work has already begun on CAGE frameworks with larger language models, which Socher predicts will boost accuracy even further. “You can plug in any language model that’s pretrained and has weights available. Our hypothesis is that as you get larger and larger language models, you’ll capture more and more common sense,” he said. “Before, knowledge conglomeration used to be thought of as a human-in-the-loop endeavor … and the nice thing here is we can allow this model to read text [and then] make sense from all the things that people are saying. It can read about the world … and really capture this commonsense reasoning ability.” Rajani believes the work could lay the groundwork for more helpful, less frustrating AI assistants. “For example, suppose that you’re interacting with a robot and you have a coffee mug and an empty glass in front of you and you say ‘Pour me some water in a glass.’ If the robot had common sense, you wouldn’t have to be very specific — it’s not going to pour water in the coffee mug.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Landr raises $26 million for AI-powered music creation tools | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/16/landr-raises-26-million-for-ai-powered-music-creation-tools"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Landr raises $26 million for AI-powered music creation tools Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. Landr , a Montreal-based startup developing an AI -powered creative platform for musicians, today announced that it has closed a $26 million series B funding round led by Sony Innovation Fund, microphone manufacturer Shure, and state-owned financing corporation Investissement Québec and Fonds de solidarité FTQ. (Investissement Québec and other backers contributed $7 million as an initial convertible note, and the remaining $19 million was equity.) The infusion — which also saw participation from Warner Music, Plus Eight Equity Partners, Slaight Communications, YUL Ventures, and PEAK Capital Partners — brings Landr’s total raised to over $30 million. “Having the support of established music companies like Sony, Shure, and Warner as well as music industry investors such as Plus Eight and Slaight is a vote of confidence and marks the start of a new chapter for Landr,” said CEO Pascal Pilon, who cofounded Landr in 2012 with Stuart Mansbridge. “This series B will allow us to take our knowledge and expertise in music technology to new market shifting directions.” Landr provides a cloud-hosted mastering dashboard, imbued with AI that’s been trained on data from over 10 million tracks, that analyzes songs’ styles to create bespoke sets of audio post-production processors. (Algorithms make last-minute tweaks as needed, optimizing both custom and curated samples from top artists.) A suite of collaboration tools lets artists share tracks, leave comments, and access tracks from the cloud, and Landr’s distribution program enables them to publish to major platforms like Spotify and Apple Music without having to fork over a cut of their earnings. Above: Landr’s mixing tools. Landr recently rolled out multiple mastering styles, volume matching for playback, and other quality of life improvements, and the company revealed that it now releases thousands of tracks weekly on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Given that 2.5 million artists in 160 countries around the world have mastered and promoted over 12 million tracks with its tools, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Landr has attracted backing from big-name producers and artists like Hans Zimmer, Nas, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, and Tiga. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “Landr shows great development potential and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ is proud to support a company that has an impact in two sectors in which it believes in, artificial intelligence and culture,” said senior vice president of Venture Capital Investments at Fonds de solidarité FTQ Alain Denis. “Thanks to its promising technological platform developed here in Quebec, Landr provides an innovative tool for creators and musicians around the world, and helps them push the limits of their art.” In addition to its Quebec headquarters, Landr has an office in Los Angeles. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "

"Sony's AI drums up beats for songs | VentureBeat"

"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/05/sonys-ai-drums-up-beats-for-songs"

"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sony’s AI drums up beats for songs Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here. AI might soon become an invaluable tool in musicians’ compositional arsenals, if recent developments are any indication. In July, Montreal-based startup Landr raised $26 million for a product that analyzes musical styles to create bespoke sets of audio processors, while OpenAI and Google earlier this year debuted online creation tools that tap music-generating algorithms. Inspired by this and other recent work, researchers at Sony investigated a machine learning model for conditional kick-drum track generation. Given an existing song and low-dimensional code that encodes the relationship between said song and to-be-generated new material, the AI creates a variety of “musically plausible” drum patterns from one song to another irrespective of differences in tempo and time-shift (i.e., changing speed or duration). “We propose a model architecture … that encodes rhythmic interactions of the kick drum versus bass and snare patterns. Each mapping code captures local relations between kick vs bass and snare inputs, such that an entire track is associated to a sequence of mapping codes,” explained the coauthors. “Rather than controlling the characteristics of the generated material directly, it offers control over how the generated material relates to the conditioning material.” To train the AI system, the researchers compiled a data set consisting of 665 pop, rock, and electronic songs where the rhythm instruments bass, kick, and snare were available as separate 44.1kHz audio tracks. (Contextual signals consisted of two input maps for beat and downbeat possibilities as well as maps for the onset functions of snare and bass.) Next, they rendered an audio file of a drum kick by placing a drum sample on all amplitude peaks remaining after thresholding, to which they introduced dynamics by choosing the volume of the sample from 70% for peaks at the threshold to 100% for peaks with the maximum value. VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! In a series of experiments, they tapped the AI system to both conditionally generate drum patterns and transfer style, or apply rhythm patterns inferred from one song to induce similar patterns in another song. Additionally, they created time-stretched versions of songs at 80%, 90%, 110%, and 120% of the original tempo, respectively, and determined a mapping code. Here’s one song pre-processing ( Gypsy Love ): And here’s that same song with AI-generated drum patterns: The team notes that the reconstructions aren’t perfect in part due to the model’s “invariance,” but they point out that the accuracy for the validation set was similar to that for the training set. “We have shown that the mapping codes are largely tempo and time-invariant and that musically plausible kick drum tracks can be generated given a snare and bass track either by sampling a mapping code or through style transfer, by inferring the mapping code from another song,” wrote the coauthors, who leave to future work applying the same approach to snare drum and bass track generation. VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings. The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat. All rights reserved. "