Andrew Liptak | The Verge

Here’s how to look at life-size animals in AR through Google search

2020-03-30T15:25:55-04:00

Back in May 2019, at its I/O developers conference, Google announced that it was bringing a neat feature to its search results: augmented reality models, which allow users to take a look at a 3D image of a search result. Shortly after, the company rolled out the feature to users with an ARCore or ARKit-ready Android phone or iPhone, as spotted by CNET, allowing them to place an AR animal right in their living room, bedroom, or backyard.

Today, with adults and kids stuck inside to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be a great distraction to place a pet tiger, wolf, or panda on your living room couch. When the feature first premiered, it only had a few animals that you could check out, such as a tiger, a lion, a giant panda, a Rottweiler, and a wolf. Now there are a bunch of others, including an alligator, a hedgehog, and a duck (specifically, a mallard). (9to5Google’s Damien Wilde has recently compiled a good list of available creatures.)

It’s AR of the tiger!

If you’ve got an AR-enabled phone, you can now bring select animals right into your space for a safari (or safe snuggle) with Search. pic.twitter.com/kWpudETgeq
— Google (@Google) May 31, 2019

To use the feature, navigate to Google on a compatible device, and search for the animal in question in Google search. If the animal you’ve searched for (say, a wolf) is available, it’ll show up in a small box with some statistics, an animated thumbnail, and an invitation to “Meet a life-sized wolf up close.”

From there, tap “View in 3D,” and the site will put an animated 3D model on your screen. Click on “View in your space,” point your phone at the floor, and it’ll switch you to an AR view of the animal on your phone. This step may take a couple of minutes: it had me move my phone around before populating a handful of animals, but eventually, it displayed a tiger, a golden eagle, and a wolf hanging out in my backyard. It’ll let you take a clean screenshot, minus all the tabs and buttons.

The feature is pretty cool: it’s a good way to see just how large some of these animals really are up close (I kept thinking that they were too large, until I looked at their stats), and I could see this being useful in a classroom or educational setting.

At I/O 2019, Google noted that the feature would be used for some more practical things, like shopping, where you could see what a product looked like without actually having it in hand, or if you wanted to check out how the muscular system looked on a person — it would overlay your search result in AR. Since then, in fact, Google has released an AR navigation feature for Google Maps and has been releasing AR Playmoji stickers for users to play with.

The feature isn’t the first time that Google has inserted some sort of interactive, animal-related feature into its search results. Back in 2016, it launched a feature that allows people to listen to animal sounds in search results, although you have to specifically search for “Animal Sounds” to access that — searching for “Wolf Sounds” just brings you to regular links, like clips from YouTube or other related pages.

The Folio Society’s next book brings Marvel’s Golden Age back to life

2019-08-14T09:09:56-04:00

The Folio Society has released a number of high-end editions of classic science fiction and fantasy novels over the years, including books by Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, George R.R. Martin, and more. Now, it’s taking on a new medium: comic books. This September, it’ll release Marvel: The Golden Age, 1939-1949, a compilation of the company’s classic comics.

The book is designed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Marvel Comics #1. It’s now available for preorder, and it will retail for $225 when it’s released on September 25th. It’ll also come with a 64-page replica of that original comic.

The Folio Society’s books are aimed toward collectors and serious readers: its offerings aren’t paperbacks or hardcovers that you’ll find on the shelves of your local bookstore. They’re volumes that often come with special slipcovers and contain introductions from the authors or their contemporaries, as well as original artwork, all on high-quality paper. I’ve long been impressed with its offerings (and have bought a bunch over the years) because of the effort that’s put in and the art that the publisher includes with each one.

Folio Society editorial director Tom Walker tells The Verge that moving into comics is a “really thrilling new enterprise for us,” but he notes that “it doesn’t feel like virgin territory. Marvel Comics have been one of the great literary influences of the past century, and as I started to explore that world, I found the comic form had inspired so many of my own favorite writers, from Neil Gaiman to Margaret Atwood.”

Walker explains that the Folio Society wanted to anthologize the major Marvel eras, and its “aim was to allow readers to get closer to the Golden Age of Marvel Comics than they’ve ever been.” To assemble the book, the society partnered with Roy Thomas, the writer and editor who succeeded Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. He helped with the selection process for the book, which includes characters like Captain America, The Human Torch, and Namor, The Sub-Mariner.

Walker says that he’s most proud of the reproduction of Marvel Comics #1, which was based on an original copy from 1939 that it was able to track down. “We spent hours perfecting this, choosing the right grade of paper and finding ways to recreate the experience kids would have had picking this up from the newsstand for the first time.” The other comics included in the main volume are reproduced from “first-edition comics both from the Marvel archives and from major private collectors, in order to find the most pristine copies to offset,” Walker says.

The Folio Society says that the volume is the first in an ongoing partnership with Marvel Comics, and the next volume is set to come out sometime in the first half of 2020.

A Tesla owner implanted the RFID chip from her Model 3’s keycard into her arm

2019-08-12T15:04:36-04:00

Tesla’s Model 3 doesn’t come with a physical key. Instead, it can be unlocked and turned on with a smartphone, a car-shaped key fob, or a keycard that comes in handy if you don’t have a fob or your phone dies. One creative driver figured out a way to make sure that she can always unlock and start her Model 3: she implanted the RFID tag from the keycard into her forearm.

Amie DD is a software engineer and self-described “maker of things.” In a video, she explained that she had implanted an RFID tag in her arm years ago, which she had used to open her home’s front door and to send a smartphone’s browser to her personal website. When she preordered her Model 3, she realized that she could probably do something similar with the keycard. She didn’t have any luck transferring the software to her existing chip, so she decided to extract the card’s chip and implant that into her arm.

To do that, she dissolved the card using acetone, and had it encased in a biopolymer. From there, she went to a body-modification studio to have the chip (about the size of a Lego mini-figure) implanted into her forearm. In another video (warning, there’s some blood), she shows off the implantation. She also documented her process on Hackaday.

While she doesn’t show off the chip in action on the video (she noted on Twitter that her arm was swollen right after she had the chip implanted), she told The Verge via DM that the chip does work, although the range from her arm to the console “isn’t the greatest,” — about an inch (25 mm) — and she says that she hopes that’ll improve as the swelling goes down. At the very least, she’ll never accidentally lock herself out of her car.

Carrier is an immersive podcast that left me on the edge of my seat

2019-08-11T18:06:12-04:00

There are a ton of podcasts out there, but finding the right one can be difficult. In our new column Pod Hunters, we cover what we’ve been listening to that we can’t stop thinking about.

I’d recommend against listening to QCode’s latest podcast while driving. When I queued up Carrier for the first time to listen while running errands, I jumped out of my seat when it kicked off with an intense introduction that bounced the sound from speaker to speaker, and closed with the blaring horn of a tractor trailer truck.

That was a good example of the tension that the rest of the series would bring. The serialized podcast introduces us to Raylene, an African American truck driver who’s been pulled over by a state trooper. The traffic stop pulls her off schedule and puts her into a bind, and when the opportunity to pick up a sealed trailer for a mysterious company arises, she jumps at the chance. Her cargo comes with some strict requirements: the trailer has to be kept cooled to a certain temperature, and she has to drop it off by 5AM in Chicago. It’s strange, and soon after she hits the road, she begins to have second thoughts, especially when she realizes that her cargo might be some sort of strange creature.

The series comes from QCode, the studio that released Blackout earlier this year. Like its predecessor (which featured Mr. Robot’s Rami Malik), it features a high-profile lineup of actors: Cynthia Erivo (Widows, Bad Times at the El Royale) voices Raylene, while Martin Starr (Silicon Valley), Lamorne Morris (New Girl) and Lance Reddick (The Wire, Fringe) are also part of the cast. But while the actors bring the intense story to life, what really sets the series apart is the studio’s attention to sound design, putting together a world that had me listening at the edge of my seat — and sometimes jumping right out of it.

You can listen to Carrier on Apple Podcasts, Player.FM, and Spotify.

Carrier creator Dan Blank tells The Verge that he worked for years in Hollywood, and had been working on a bunch of ambitious feature-length projects. “It had become kind of frustrating,” he says. “There are a lot of factors required to make a movie.” He explained that Carrier came about because he wanted something that was “very, very small, a story that could be one location, with a few characters, and nothing that would break a budget to produce.”

He settled on the idea of a truck driver who picked up an unsettling cargo, and who would have considerable trouble turning to others for help. He says that he particularly wanted to focus on how African American women made up a tiny fraction of drivers on the road, and at how the industry has rapidly changed with new regulations and technology. “It’s a very different industry than in what we know from the 70s’ movies and country songs.”

As he was working on that story, film agent Rob Herting left CAA to found his audio production studio QCode. The two had already been talking, and they decided to shift the project from a film and into an audio drama.

Blank noted there were things you could do with an audio drama “that you just can’t do in a television series or a movie.” Specifically, he felt that an audio drama would allow him do better develop the characters in a way that a feature film just wouldn’t allow, and that good sound design could enhance the story.

Sound design was a big part of the production

That emphasis on sound design was a big part of the production, Blank says. He and his production team worked to make the show as immersive as possible. “I’m worried about people doing surgery or riding bikes or something because there is definitely some stuff that’s intended to scare you.” The sound moves from side to side, and adds a visceral level of tension as you listen.

To get that effect, Blank says that they used a technique called binaural audio, a process that is designed to simulate how ears capture sound. “It’s a little different than using two microphones to create stereo sound,” he explains. “What we actually did was use a mannequin’s dummy head with two microphones in sculpted ears.” They had actors act against the head on a stage, and brought it out alongside roads to record sound, giving listeners the impression of space around them. “We also did some stuff in post production, where you simulate that effect.” The result is an immersive soundscape that brings a depth to the story that you don’t typically find in an audio story.

Blank says that he’s become enamored of audio as a medium, and plans to continue to push the experience further in upcoming projects. “We’ve done this one, so what’s the next thing that we can do that pushes this further? There’s so much left to explore.”

Ninja disgusted at Twitch after porn stream was promoted on his channel

2019-08-11T17:14:33-04:00

This afternoon, streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins posted a video to Twitter to address an issue concerning his former Twitch profile page: the streaming platform had begun to promote other streamers in his place, including a channel streaming pornography earlier this morning.

Earlier this month, Blevins announced that he was leaving Twitch for another streaming platform, Microsoft-owned Mixer, where he quickly gained a million subscribers within five days. In his video, Blevins says that the transition “went incredibly smooth, super professional,” but noticed in the last couple days that “there have been some things going on that, you know, we let slide. They were kind of annoying little jabs we felt like, but it didn’t matter, we wanted to stay professional.” Twitch also removed Blevins’ verification checkmark not long after his Mixer exclusivity announcement.

Twitch began promoting other channels to his former profile page last week, one of which appears to have been streaming pornography, which was captured in screenshots by users on Twitter today. Blevins says that the channel streaming porn had been bumped to the number one spot, and apologized to users who might have seen it. As of the time of this writing, Ninja’s profile page doesn’t display other channels.

Disgusted and so sorry. pic.twitter.com/gnUY5Kp52E
— Ninja (@Ninja) August 11, 2019

This isn’t the first time that Twitch channels have streamed porn: the company temporarily suspended new creators from streaming back after a group of trolls abused a section with pornography, illegal content and other restricted material earlier this year.

In a series of Tweets, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear apologized to Blevins for the incident, and explained that they had been “experimenting with showing recommended content across Twitch, including on streamer’s pages that are offline,” and that they’ve suspended the recommendations “while we investigate how this content came to be promoted.” He also says that the channel that streamed the pornography had been “permanently suspended.”

Blevins alleged that his channel was singled out, saying that no other departed streamers had other channels promoted on their page. He indicated that he has no control over what was being promoted, and noted in a followup Tweet that “this wouldn’t even have been an issue if they didnt use my channel to promote others in the first place.” He also says in the video that he and his team were working to try and get the “whole channel taken down to begin with, or at least not promote other streamers and channels on my brand, on my frickin’ profile.”

Update, August 11th at 8:30PM ET: Updated to include comments from Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.

J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye will be published as an ebook for the first time

2019-08-11T14:55:12-04:00

J.D. Salinger’s classic novel Catcher in the Rye will be published as an ebook for the first time this week, according to The New York Times. The profile details the late author and his estate’s reluctance to follow the rest of the publishing industry online.

The Times reports that Little, Brown and Company will publish the novel, as well as three other novels, Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour—An Introduction as ebooks this week. The move is part of a broader reveal of Salinger’s body of work, which will include an exhibition by the the New York Public Library later this year, which will display a selection of the author’s letters, photographs, and other items.

Salinger famously became reclusive after the release of Catcher in the Rye in 1951, and he eventually stopped publishing in 1965. However, he continued to write up until his death in 2010, leaving behind a vast archive of unpublished work, none of which has been seen publicly.

Those works have been a closely-guarded secret, protected by his literary trust and son, Matt Salinger, who has been going through his father’s archives. Earlier this year, the family revealed that those unseen works will be eventually published.

Salinger tells the Times that the trust has kept a firm grip on his father’s works and legacy, refusing attempts to adapt or license them, keeping with his desire for privacy. Salinger also noted that his father detested the internet, noting that he was “horrified” when his son described Facebook to him. Because of that attitude, the trust put off requests for digital editions, and was only swayed recently when a reader wrote to Salinger to say that her disability made it difficult to read physical books.

While the books will be published digitally this week, they won’t be accompanied by an audio edition — Salinger “abhorred the idea of his books being performed or interpreted in any way in another medium,” according to his son.

The report also highlights another reason for why it’s taken nearly a decade for Salinger to go through his father’s works: he hasn’t been able to use any handwriting recognition software to convert his father’s handwritten work into digital files, forcing him to type up every word himself.

Security researchers find that DSLR cameras are vulnerable to ransomware attack

2019-08-11T14:33:29-04:00

Ransomware has become a major threat to computer systems in recent years, as high-profile attacks have locked users out of personal computers, hospitals, city governments, and even The Weather Channel. Now, security researchers have discovered that another device that might be at risk: a DSLR camera.

Check Point Software Technologies issued a report today that detailed how its security researchers were able to remotely install malware on a digital DSLR camera. In it, researcher Eyal Itkin found that a hacker can easily plant malware on a digital camera. He says that the standardized Picture Transfer Protocol is an ideal method for delivering malware: it’s unauthenticated and can be used with both Wi-Fi and USB. The report notes that individual with an infected Wi-Fi access point could deploy it at a tourist destination to pull off an attack, or infect a user’s PC.

cameras could be a particularly juicy target for hackers

In a video, Itkin shows off how he were able to exploit a Canon E0S 80D over Wi-Fi and encrypt the images on the SD card so that the user wouldn’t be able to access them. He also notes that cameras could be a particularly juicy target for hackers: they’re full of personal images that most people likely won’t want to walk away from. In a real ransomware attack, a hacker will typically demand a small amount of money in exchange for the key that will decrypt the files — usually a small enough amount that people would rather just pay to get rid of the inconvenience.

Check Point says that it disclosed the vulnerability to Canon back in March, and the two began work in May to develop a patch. Last week, Canon issued a security advisory, telling people to avoid using unsecured Wi-Fi networks, to turn off its network functions when it’s not being used, and to update and install a new security patch onto the camera itself. Itkin says that he only worked with a Canon device, but tells The Verge that “due to the complexity of the protocol, we do believe that other vendors might be vulnerable as well, however it depends on their respective implementation.”

The US Navy will replace its touchscreen controls with mechanical ones on its destroyers

2019-08-11T11:19:48-04:00

Gas Turbine System Technician (Electrical) Fireman Matt R. Richardson, left, receives training at the helm aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun (DDG 103). | Image: U.S. Navy

The US Navy will replace the touchscreen throttle and helm controls currently installed in its destroyers with mechanical ones starting in 2020, says USNI News. The move comes after the National Transportation Safety Board released an accident report from a 2017 collision, which cites the design of the ship’s controls as a factor in the accident.

On August 21st, 2017, the USS John S. McCain collided with the Alnic MC, a Liberian oil tanker, off the coast of Singapore. The report provides a detailed overview of the actions that led to the collision: when crew members tried to split throttle and steering control between consoles, they lost control of the ship, putting it into the path of the tanker. The crash killed 10 sailors and injured 48 aboard the McCain.

The report says that while fatigue and lack of training played a role in the accident, the design of the ship’s control console were also contributing factors. Located in the middle of the McCain’s bridge, the Ship’s Control Console (SCC) features a pair of touch-screens on both the Helm and Lee Helm stations, through which the crew could steer and propel the ship. Investigators found that the crew had placed it in “backup manual mode,” which removed computer-assisted help, because it allowed for “more direct form of communication between steering and the SSC.” That setting meant that any crew member at another station could take over steering operations, and when the crew tried to regain control of the ship from multiple stations, control “shifted from the lee helm, to aft steering, to the helm, and back to aft steering.”

The ship’s touchscreen controls and procedures were overly complicated

The NTSB report calls out the configuration of the bridge’s systems, pointing out that the decision to transfer controls while in the strait helped lead to the accident, and that the procedures for transferring the controls from one station to another were complicated, further contributing to the confusion. Specifically, the board points to the touchscreens on the bridge, noting that mechanical throttles are generally preferred because “they provide both immediate and tactile feedback to the operator.” The report notes that had mechanical controls been present, the helmsmen would have likely been alerted that there was an issue early on, and recommends that the Navy better adhere to better design standards.

Following the incident, the Navy conducted fleet-wide surveys, and according to Rear Admiral Bill Galinis, the Program Executive Officer for Ships, personnel indicated that they would prefer mechanical controls. Speaking before a recent Navy symposium, he described the controls as falling under the “‘just because you can doesn’t mean you should’ category,” and that ship systems were simply too complicated. He also noted that they’re looking into the design of other ships to see if they can bring some system commonalities between different ship classes.

The Navy will begin to replace the controls in the summer of 2020

Admiral Galinis tells USNI News that plans are currently underway to switch out the systems. “We’re already in the contracting process, and it’s going to come on almost as a kit that’s relatively easy to install.” According to the Naval Sea Systems Command, all Arleigh Burke class destroyers with the Integrated Bridge and Navigation System will get physical throttles, beginning in the summer of 2020 with the USS Ramage.

Touchscreens weren’t the only issue in the collision: the report calls out that several crew members on the bridge at the time weren’t familiar with the systems that they were overseeing and were inexperienced in their roles, and that many were fatigued, with an average of 4.9 hours of sleep between the 14 crew members present. The report recommended that the Navy conduct better training for the bridge systems, update the controls and associated documentation, and ensure that Navy personnel aren’t tired when they’re on the job.

Apple’s next iPad Pro could come with a rear triple-camera array

2019-08-10T11:42:49-04:00

It’s widely expected that Apple will release an iPhone with a triple-camera array on the back, and a new rumor suggests that the company’s next iPads might also get multiple rear camera systems. Mac Otakara reports (via AppleInsider) that the next iPad Pro could come with a triple-camera array, while the regular 10.2 inch iPad might come with a dual-camera system.

Apple updated its iPad Mini, and iPad Air earlier this year, and it’s expected to unveil some additional updates for the iPad and iPad Pro later this year, which could include the new camera systems. Mac Otakara cites accessory diagrams from Apple suppliers, which point to the iPad Pro getting a bigger camera array. The upcoming iPhone 11 is rumored to be getting a similar system. It also notes that the 6th generation iPad could come with the same dual-camera setup that the iPhone 11 LCD model will have. The site says that the models could launch in October.

While Apple has introduced a dual-camera system in several recent iPhone models, they haven’t carried them over to its tablets: the latest iPad Pro has a single camera with 12-megapixel sensor, the latest iPad Mini, iPad Air, and iPad come with 8 megapixel sensors. The multiple-camera system could be part of Apple’s AR ambitions. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the triple-camera array in the upcoming iPhones would be used for augmented reality apps, and that the iPad Pro could also get the same system.

MoviePass reportedly changed account passwords to prevent users from seeing films

2019-08-09T18:05:21-04:00

Struggling theater subscription service MoviePass reportedly resorted to extreme tactics to prevent users from taking advantage of core features, according to a new report from Business Insider. In particular, the report highlights a strategy the company used to keep users from bankrupting it, by changing account passwords to prevent ticket purchases that might cost it money it didn’t have.

Business Insider’s report looks at how Ted Farnsworth, CEO of MoviePass parent company Helios & Matheson Analytics, and MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe, transformed the company from a little-known subscription service to a nationwide sensation. It also delves deep into the questionable business strategies and tactics the duo used to keep the company afloat, all while it hemorrhaged money by fronting subscribers the full cost of a movie ticket. MoviePass was not immediately available for comment.

MoviePass has had an extremely rough couple of years

MoviePass has had an extremely rough couple of years, due in part to its buzzy $10-a-month fee it introduced back in the summer of 2017. The change, which allowed subscribers to see a movie a day every day of the month for less than the price of an average ticket in most American cities, resulted in an explosion in popularity and exposure for MoviePass.

The report, however, outlines how the price drop was mainly a marketing tactic to generate headlines, and that it led to a surge in sign-ups the company could barely keep up with. For example, MoviePass never anticipated the number of physical cards it needed, and its vendor ended up running out, leading to delays in on-boarding new users.

The goal was to get critical mass of new subscribers to boost profits, with the hope that a majority of users wouldn’t see more than one movie a month, much in the same way a gym offsets high overhead by relying on members who hardly ever show up. The problem is that people enjoy going to the movies in a way that they don’t particularly like going to the gym, and as a result, MoviePass was losing money with every visit. MoviePass founder Stacy Spikes argued the price was going to bankrupt the company, and he was eventually shown the door, Business Insider reports.

Because of the demand, the company ran into trouble. In April 2018, it cut back on its unlimited plan, allowing users to see only four films a month. Then it changed its user plans again, allowing users to only see films from a certain selection. Then it forced users to opt out of the new plans. In January, it unveiled yet another set of subscription plans. In March, it brought back the unlimited plan (with conditions). And finally in July, it announced that it would shut down for “several weeks” to retool its model.

Business Insider’s report outlined how the company took on a more adversarial stance toward power users that were costing it too much money. One employee noted, “Before Mitch came on it was, ‘How do we slow down those users?’ With Mitch [Lowe] it was just, ‘F— those guys.’”

The company introduced numerous tactics to discourage users from buying tickets

The company tried other tactics to actively make its service hard to use, like when it limited the ability for users to see high-profile films like Avengers: Infinity War and Mission Impossible: Fallout. Employees say Lowe demanded they change the passwords of “a small percentage of power users” ahead of those releases to prevent them from ordering tickets through the app, telling people that it was a “technical issue.”

The company also implemented a “trip wire,” which would cut off users once the company reached a certain monetary threshold each day. Users were told “there are no more screenings at this theater today,” when in reality MoviePass was disabling its services to prevent it from burning through too much cash.

Business Insider says the company’s subscriber base has dropped from “over 3 million to around 225,000,” and since the company shut down its operations in July, “Farnsworth and Lowe are nowhere to be found, as most of the staff have yet to learn the cause of the company’s halt.”