NBA arcade action is back with NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. The sequel takes street balling to the next level with an expansive roster of current and retired NBA players, improved online matchmaking with dedicated servers, four-player online matches, three-point contests, new playgrounds, custom matches, and more. Pick your team, get ready to jam, and Ball Without Limits.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas is an action-adventure game through which you assemble a custom Starship model mounted to your game controller to launch into an interplanetary adventure. Lead a group of heroic interstellar pilots who use modular starships to mix and match their unique gear and skills on the fly. Travel the stars to unite the galaxy against villainous destructive forces. Modular, customizable starships: Mix and match pilots, hulls, wings, and weapons to assemble the starship of your dreams with a level of customization and creativity. Changes to your physical ship instantly appear in-game allowing you to immediately jump into the battle. Starships at your fingertips - Take control of your starship in a whole new way. Your custom starship attaches directly to your game controller as you pilot through Atlas. Open, living star system - Travel seamlessly through the vast exotic alien worlds of the Atlas Star System, full of unique challenges to discover and overcome. Explore 7 massive unique planets and space. Plus, fly directly from the planet into space for more battles and back to another world. Creative combat - Build your unique play style. Experiment with different pilot abilities and weapons to discover and unleash devastating combos upon your enemies and overcome deadly challenges. [Ubisoft]
The Netflix Marvel superhero universe has had its ups and downs, and nothing can really make up for how bad Iron Fist Season 1 was, and what it did to The Defenders. But sometimes when you hit rock bottom, there's a silver lining: There's no direction to go but up. The Punisher was pretty good, Luke Cage Season 2 was a step in the right direction, and even Iron Fist Season 2 was watchable. Now that we've mostly forgotten about Jessica Jones Season 2, it's time to return to where it all started: Daredevil. And you know what? It's good to be back.
Daredevil Season 3 has a lot preceding it, but except where it's relevant to Matt Murdock's story, it mostly ignores what's come before. In the first six episodes, which were sent to press ahead of time, there's no mention of Jessica, Luke, Danny, or The Hand. Even Elektra is just a memory, albeit one that haunts Matt still.
Daredevil Season 3 is about rebuilding. Matt (Charlie Cox) suffered his most emotionally and physically devastating defeat yet when an entire building fell on him at the end of Defenders, and he's forced to find the time and will to heal on multiple fronts. Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) has a scheme to get out of prison, but he puts himself at great risk to pull it off. Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) are still dealing with the fact that Matt is gone, trying to put the pieces of their lives together without their best friend. Naturally, his eventual return in Season 3 will only complicate things further.
To fans, it's no secret that Matt survived the events of Defenders. He spends much of Daredevil Season 3's first half recuperating in the basement of the Catholic orphanage where he was raised, tended to by a nun who may or may not be his mother (in the comics she is; it hasn't yet been made clear in the show). At the season's start, his hearing has suffered, and without it his "sight" has also waned. An early season boxing match puts Daredevil's brutality, the actors' impressive physicality, and Matt's threshold for punishment all on display. Daredevil spends plenty of time wallowing in Matt's well earned nihilism, but even then it can be a joy to watch.
Fisk, meanwhile, proves to be the manipulative villain we remember him as from Daredevil Season 1. He flips and turns FBI informant, snitching on New York's Albanian mob and almost getting himself offed in the process. That triggers a transfer out of prison and into a cushy high-rise, "for his own safety," of course. He claims to be doing it all for Vanessa--played by Ayelet Zurer in Season 1, though she's yet to reappear in Season 3--but with the Kingpin, there's always the sense that there's more going on than we're ever made aware of. No doubt that shoe will drop before Season 3 is over.
Fisk's recruitment of crack shot FBI agent Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter--who we know from the comics as Bullseye--only begins to see its full payoff by the time Season 3 is halfway through. But Dex gradually proves himself to be a dangerous presence, an obsessive sociopath with perfect aim who was taught as a child to blend in with society. When the cracks in his "normal" life start to shake his foundations, Fisk knows exactly how to dig his fingers in deep.
The news of Fisk's "release" doesn't go over well in Hell's Kitchen, and protesters keep vigil outside his suite, adding to the feeling that this is all leading somewhere topical. Foggy and Karen fight back in their own ways--still working at the Bulletin, Karen starts investigating what Fisk is really up to, while Foggy attempts to get at him through legal means.
That's all to say that Daredevil Season 3 puts the focus where it belongs: on Matt, Fisk, Foggy, and Karen, the core characters that we originally grew to love or hate back in Season 1. With that re-anchoring comes some really cool stylistic choices; there's an entire sequence that plays out in black and white, half flashbacks, half imaginings, with one character walking back through another's life as he strives to learn everything he might use to his advantage. And there's a single-shot fight scene in these first half dozen episodes that's unbelievably impressive, easily rivaling any action that's come before in the whole Netflix Marvel universe.
So yeah, Daredevil is back. And thanks to its much needed laser focus on the characters and stories fans actually care about, you don't even need to be caught up; If you watched Daredevil Season 1 and then stopped, you could pick up again right at the start of Season 3. That definitely says something about how forgettable much of what came in the interim was. But regardless of where you've been all this time, Daredevil Season 3 is worth returning for.
Arm Launches Mbed Linux and Extends Pelion IoT Service
Politics and international relations may be fraught with acrimony these days, but the tech world seems a bit friendlier of late. Last week Microsoft joined the Open Invention Network and agreed to grant a royalty-free, unrestricted license of its 60,000-patent portfolio to other OIN members, thereby enabling Android and Linux device manufacturers to avoid exorbitant patent payments. This week, Arm and Intel kept up the happy talk by agreeing to a partnership involving IoT device provisioning.
Arm’s recently announced Pelion IoT Platform will align with Intel’s Secure Device Onboard (SDO) provisioning technology to make it easier for IoT vendors and customers to onboard both x86 and Arm-based devices using a common Peleon platform. Arm also announced Pelion related partnerships with myDevices and Arduino (see farther below).
In another nod to Intel, Arm unveiled a new, IoT focused Mbed Linux OS distribution that combines the Linux kernel with tools and recipes from the Intel-backed Yocto Project. The distro also integrates security and IoT connectivity code from its open source Mbed RTOS.
When Pelion was announced, Arm mentioned cross-platform support, but there were few details. Now with the Intel SDO deal and the launch of Mbed Linux OS, Arm has formally expanded Pelion from an MCU-only IoT data aggregation platform to one that supports more advanced x86 and Cortex-A based systems.
Mbed Linux OS
The early stage Mbed Linux OS will be released by the end of the year as an invitation-only developer preview. Both the OS source code and related test suites will eventually be open sourced.
In the Mbed Linux OS announcement, Arm’s Mark Wright pitches the distro as a secure, IoT focused “sibling” to the Cortex-M focused Mbed that is designed for Cortex-A processors. Arm will support Mbed Linux with its MCU-oriented Mbed community of 350,000 developers and will offer support for popular Linux development boards and modules. The Softbank-owned company will also supply optional commercial support.
Like Mbed, Mbed Linux will be “deeply integrated” with the Pelion IoT System in order “to simplify lifecycle management.” The Pelion support provides device provisioning, connectivity, and updates, thereby enabling development teams to update the OS and the applications independently, says Wright. Working with the Pelion Device Management Application, Mbed Linux OS can “simplify in-field provisioning and eradicate the need for legacy serial connections for initial device configuration,” says Arm.
Mbed Linux will support Arm’s Platform Security Architecture and hardware based TrustZone security to enable secure, signed boot and signed updates. It will also enable deployment of applications in secure, OCI-compliant containers.
Arm did not specify which components of the Yocto Project code it would integrate with Mbed. In late August, Arm and Facebook joined Intel and TI as Platinum members of the Yocto Project. The Linux Foundation hosted project was launched by Intel but is now widely used on Arm as well as x86 based IoT devices.
Despite common references to “Yocto Linux,” Yocto Project is not a distribution, but rather a collection of open source templates, tools, and methods for creating custom embedded Linux-based systems. A Yocto foundation underlies most major commercial Linux distributions such as Wind River Linux and Mentor Embedded Linux and is often spun into custom builds by DIY developers, especially for resource constrained IoT devices.
We saw no mention of a contribution for the Arm-backed Linaro initiative for either Mbed Linux or Pelion. Linaro, which oversees the 96Boards project, develops open source embedded Linux and Android software components. The Yocto and Linaro projects were initially seen as rivals, but they have grown increasingly complementary. Linaro’s Arm toolchain can be used within Yocto Project, as well as with the related OpenEmbedded build environment and Bitbake build engine.
Developers can sign up for the limited number of invites to participate in the upcoming developer preview of Mbed Linux OS here.
Arm’s Pelion partnerships
Arm’s Pelion IoT Platform will soon run on devices with Intel’s recently launched Secure Device Onboard (SDO) service, enabling customers to deploy both Arm and x86 based systems controlled by the common Pelion platform. “We believe this collaboration is a big step forward for greater customer choice, fewer device SKUs, higher volume and velocity through IoT supply chains and lower deployment cost,” says Arm.
The SDO “zero-touch onboarding service” depends on Intel Enhanced Privacy ID (EPID) data embedded in chips to validate and provision IoT devices automatically. SDO automatically discovers and provisions compliant devices during installation. This “late binding” approach reduces provisioning times from 20 minutes to an hour to a few minutes, says Intel.
Unlike PKI based authentication methods, “SDO does not insert Intel into the authentication path.” Instead, it brokers a rendezvous URL to the Intel SDO service where Intel EPID opens a private authentication channel between the device and the customer’s IoT platform.
The Pelion IoT Platform offers its own scheme for provisioning and configuration of devices using cryptographic identities built into Cortex-M MCUs running Mbed. With the new Mbed Linux, Pelion will also be able to accept devices that run on Cortex-A chips with TrustZone security.
Pelion combines Arm’s Mbed Cloud connected Mbed IoT Device Management Platform with technologies it acquired via two 2018 acquisitions. The new Treasure Data unit supplies data management services to Pelion. Meanwhile, Stream Technologies provides Pelion managed gateway services for wireless technologies including cellular, LoRa, and satellite communications.
The partnership with myDevices extends Pelion support to devices that run myDevices’ new IoT in a Box turnkey IoT software for LoRa gateways and nodes. myDevices, which is known for its Linux- and Arduino-friendly Cayenne drag-and-drop IoT development and management platform, launched IoT in a Box to enable easy set up a LoRa gateway and LoRa sensor nodes. Different IoT in a Box versions target specific applications ranging from home and building management to storage lockers to refrigeration systems. Developers can try out Pelion services together with IoT in a Box for a new, $199 IoT Starter Kit.
The Arduino partnership is a bit less clear. It appears to extend Arm’s Pelion Connectivity Management stack, based on the Stream Technologies acquisition, to Arduino devices. The partnership gives users the option of selecting “competitive global data plans” for cellular service, says Arm.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-17-2018, 02:23 PM - Forum: Windows
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Online scammers cost time and money. Here’s how to fight back
Microsoft has partnered with AARP since 2015 to build awareness around tech support scams and has developed a joint booklet encouraging AARP members to report these incidents.
“One of the reasons we’re thrilled to be working with Microsoft is that it’s one thing for law enforcement to give advice for crime prevention, but when Microsoft says they don’t initiate these calls, it’s very powerful,” Shadel says.
But anyone can fall prey to these schemes.
Similar to the 2016 results, Generation Z and Millennials fall prey to tech support scams more often, and also men. They may be more likely to engage in riskier online behavior, such as visiting torrent sites and giving up their email in exchange for downloading videos or images. But because they can be more familiar with technology companies than older generations, it may lead to overconfidence in their web and device expertise.
Each month, Microsoft receives about 11,000 complaints from people across the globe who have been the victim of a tech support scam with fraudsters pretending to be from reputable tech companies, including Microsoft, Dell and Apple.
To help protect consumers from online scams, Windows includes security features and updates with free real-time protection, and the SmartScreen filter built into Microsoft Edge helps protect against malicious pop-ups. In addition, the Bing Ads team took action to block 25 million ads in the tech scam category in 2017 as part of its ad quality work.
Microsoft also fights back through advanced analytics and investigations of thousands of customer complaints received annually, thanks to its Digital Crimes Unit, which identifies key players perpetrating these scams. Collaborating with enforcement agencies globally, they take action to disrupt these fraudulent enterprises and hold them accountable under the law.
For example, Microsoft provided critical information for the May 2017 sweeping enforcement action “Operation Tech Trap” in which the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement partners announced 16 new actions against tech support fraudsters. While the UK National Fraud Investigative Bureau reports the number of instances of consumers reporting tech support scams using the Microsoft brand has dropped from 76 percent to 17 percent after a string of successful joint Microsoft and law enforcement operations.
It’s not out on mobile yet, but Bad North is looking pretty great
By Joe Robinson16 Oct 2018
Whether or not we get Bad North on mobile this year remains to be seen – it seems to have been swept up in the Switch-mania, so Nintendo’s handheld superstar is probably going to have to fend off viking incursions before us iOS or Android vets even spot the sails on the horizon.
What’s not in question though is how good the game is. In case you didn’t spot it, the long-awaited micro-strategy game has released today on PC. Not via Steam, interestingly enough, but via Discord’s own storefront, which also went live today.
Bad North is a unique take on a challenging real-time strategy game, simply by virtue of its simplicity. Giving a nod to games like Into the Breach and Kingdom: New Lands, as oppressive difficulty ramps up slowly over time, the actual game-play behind positioning your units, issuing commands, and using special abilities remains relatively stable. While the initial set of islands comes off as a relaxing take on zone defense, later missions can quickly devolve into chaos at a moment’s notice. They bill themselves as a ‘micro-strategy’ game, but this is secretly a roguelike that will satiate both RTS newcomers and grizzled virtuosos.
I’ve even taken it for a spin myself and can confirm there is calming simplicity to what it asks of you, and yet defending your chosen island from the heathens is no simple feat, especially as the game progresses. The main thing we’ll want to watch out for when the game does eventually hit mobile is how well the touch controls work. The key movement concerns are being able to rotate your island with ease, select the unit you want with minimum fuss, and then send them to their destination with accuracy.
History Hides Away More Than One Truth... SOULCALIBUR VI represents the latest entry in the premier weapons-based, head-to-head fighting series and continues the epic struggle of warriors searching for the legendary Soul Swords. Taking place in the 16th century, revisit the events of the original SOULCALIBUR to uncover hidden truths. [Bandai Namco]
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-17-2018, 05:18 AM - Forum: Lounge
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No Diablo 3 Cross-Play Anytime Soon
Blizzard has addressed the rumors that Diablo 3 is getting cross-play support. Although the developer knows of players' excitement, it confirmed Diablo 3 cross-play isn't in the works at all right now.
"While we love the idea of bringing our players together across platforms, we do not have any plans to implement cross-platform gameplay for Diablo at this time," a Blizzard rep told Comic Book. Diablo 3 exists on several different platforms, including consoles from two different generations. With Sony's decision to try console cross-platform play with Microsoft and Nintendo in Fortnite, some players have looked to other games that could benefit from cross-play. With Diablo 3 on so many platforms, it's been a popular candidate.
Prior to Comic Book's confirmation, in an interview with Business Insider, a Blizzard rep said that Diablo 3 cross-platform play was "a question of when, not if." This led to several rumors that the dungeon crawler role-playing game would be supporting cross-play soon. Some theorized the feature might be announced at this year's BlizzCon, but--much like Diablo: Reign of Terror being a new game--it doesn't look like that's the case.
Blizzard previously released a statement that there were several Diablo projects in the works. The first one, Diablo 3 coming to Nintendo Switch, has already been announced. However, Blizzard has not revealed what the other projects might be. "Some of them are going to take longer than others, but we may have some things to show you later this year," said community manager Brandy Camel.
Hulu slims up ‘skinny’ bundle as it reprioritizes on-demand content
Hulu has started to work towards slimming down its “skinny” bundle of live TV channels in an effort to reprioritize sales on bread-and-butter on-demand content.
Hulu CEO Randy Freer in an interview with The Information said he “wants to drop some live entertainment channels to be able to create smaller bundles of live sports, news, and on-demand entertainment in ways to appeal to more viewers and reduce costs.”
The streaming firm launched the “Hulu with Live TV” package less than two years ago in an ambitious attempt to compete with the likes of Sling, Dish and Google. The live TV package has been successful, garnering over a million subscribers to date, but is still a far cry from the 20 million people paying for its on-demand package.
Part of the strategy involves offering programs as on-demand content instead of live feeds. For Hulu, licensing costs make up the bulk of its expenses. Dropping certain channels to create skinnier bundles with new on-demand channels won’t necessarily curb those costs, but it does allow the company to save on the expensive equipment required to stream live content.
“The bundles are broken, and their channels are losing carriage,” Freer said, adding that programmers like Fox, Discovery, Viacom and NBCU are now promoting select channels instead of marketing all available channels en-masse. “Some of these brands won’t be strong enough […] You won’t need a live feed for all of them.”
Live content has attracted a healthy number of subscribers, but is still a loss leader for streaming purveyors. Hulu’s losses climbed to $423 million in the June quarter, up 135 percent year over year. Google has had similar issues with its YouTube TV service. It costs the search giant $49 per subscriber per month for its skinny bundle, which is $9 more than it currently charges customers.
Currently, media companies sell all their channels to a distributor bundled together. Hulu is interested in changing that to improve its flexibility and offer new, smaller bundles for sports, news and more.
Original content is also set to substantially increase going into next year for Hulu, though not nearly to the same degree as Netflix. Unlike Netflix, which hopes to primarily stream content they create themselves, Hulu looks to be an aggregation hub for other media companies, sprinkling in its own productions.
Live TV has been a differentiator for Hulu, where competitors such as Amazon and Netflix only offer on-demand options. New entrants Apple, WarnerMedia and Disney are all also expected rely mainly on on-demand content.
Apple is widely rumored to launch a streaming video service next year, potentially bundling Apple Music and an upcoming news service with a slate of original video content. How the company intends to monetize the product is unclear. A report last week suggested Apple plans to make its own shows free to view via the TV app on iPhone, iPad and the Apple TV, while at the same time offering subscriptions for outside online services.
Materialize Free Texture Map Generation Tool Released
Materialize was just released for free. What exactly is Materialize? In the creators own words:
Materialize is a stand alone tool for creating materials for use in games from images. You can create an entire material from a single image or import the textures you have and generate the textures you need.
Materialize is production tested, having been used to generate metallic, smoothness and occlusion textures for the Uncharted collection. It is very similar in scope and functionality to Substance’s B2M or the free ModLab.
Essentially you start by feeding it a diffuse map, which you can then edit as you desire, then create a height map, normal map, edge map, smoothness map, AO map and metallic map automatically.
Each step of the way you have fine tune control over how each individual map is created. For example, here are the controls governing the creation of the normal map.
You also have the ability to provide your own maps from file if you have them, simply use Materialize to generate the maps that you are missing. There are also features in place for creating tiled maps. Of course to go along with all of it, there is a real-time preview of the map you are creating, including multiple skyboxes and control over the post processing effects show in the preview.
When you are done you are able to export your generated maps to a variety of different texture formats. Just an all around amazing application and one that should be added to every texture makers toolkit! Watch the video below to learn more and see Materialize in action! There are also some tutorials available here if you wish to learn more.
