Hasta La Gadget!

This week the folks at Rockstar Games have had a bit of an information spill from Grand Theft Auto 5 with details on a customizable pet dog named Chop. This dog will be appearing as partner to one of three main characters in the game and will have “100% customizable” accessories – collars, chains, and everything in-between. We’ll leave it to Franklin to decide what’s appropriate as he rides the line between legitimate and nefarious business once the full game appears.

This information comes from the paperback publication Famitsu and were brought to the web by an intrepid fan board member watamaru to GTA Community. It’s there that the following details were let loose – and please excuse the very basic translation action.

• Each character has a walk of their own
• You can change the dog’s accessories
• The dog may be lost
• Wild animals will be able to be hunted
• More than 15 unique animals will be running through the game’s environments
• Game will feature a full-fledged underwater mission
• Characters can go for a drive together (Trevor with Michael) on jet skis

Also included are images such as the one you’re seeing below, here reminding us that the game will continue to work with helicopters on the chase, revealing a bit of a speed boat element as it does so. With more than 15 animals on the run, we’re expecting both land-based and aquatic beasts to be appearing – and not just birds as you’re seeing in the backgrounds of many of the shots revealed for the game thus far.

Have a peek at one of the more revealing gameplay videos here as well, and be sure to continue to follow the full-on GTA action through SlashGear’s Rockstar tag portal as we move ever closer to the worldwide release date on 9/17/2013. Or October 10th, if you live in Japan – according to Famitsu, that is.

Have a peek at SlashGear’s Grand Theft Auto V official gameplay video breakdown for analysis from start to finish.

BONUS: for those of you waiting to see dogs in GTA, there’s always odd modifications like the one you’re about to see. We’re expecting one whole heck of an upgrade from this nastiness when the GTA 5 shows their dogs for real.

VIA: GTA Forums; Complex

GTA V continues in-game pet dog customizations with Chop is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Maybe someday we'll get a real "AI" boy.

(Credit: DreamWorks/Warner Bros.)

We’re still very far away from Data on “Star Trek,” an artificial intelligence creation with self-awareness and a human-like mind. But artificial intelligence designers are taking baby steps. More accurately, they’re taking 4-year-old steps.

A study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago took one of today’s top artificial intelligence systems, ConceptNet 4, and gave it an IQ test. Its average IQ worked out to be about that of a 4-year-old human, the researchers found.

ConceptNet 4 was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The UIC team used the verbal parts of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Test to put it through its paces.

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While the overall IQ score was pretty impressive, the AI system had trouble with consistency. “If a child had scores that varied this mu… [Read more]

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The jetpack would emerge in popular American science fiction of the 1920s, and later become cemented into the popular imagination after World War II. But the idea of single-flyer personal transportation tech didn’t start with the jetpack. In the late 19th century, people were obsessed with flight. And they imagined a future where strapping a pair of wings to your back would be quite the trend in the skies of tomorrow.

Read more…

Cloud storage is great and all, but with so many concerns about privacy, some people just can’t trust companies with their personal files. BitTorrent Sync looks to solve such a dilemma with a new app launching for Android devices that offers a cloud-like storage system without the cloud. The app entered public beta today with the launch of the Android app.

BitTorrent Sync aims to be a cloud-like storage solution that allows you to sync files across multiple devices, but the files aren’t stored in the cloud. Instead, they’re stored locally on all of your devices, and when changes are made to files, or if you delete or add files, all of your devices will update with the changes when connected to the internet.

Better yet, your files never pass through a server when shared, and the transfers are always encrypted. The service relies on the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol in order to sync all of your documents, photos, videos, music, etc., but the data never travels through someone else’s computer. This also allows no restrictions on storage limits other than the storage space your devices have available.

Sync was first introduced back in January as a pre-alpha project, and since then, it has changed dramatically thanks to user feedback. Perhaps the best part is that the service is completely free, no matter how much storage space you use up, making this quite an appealing offer for cloud storage fans.

While BitTorrent Sync is only available on Android as far as mobile platforms go, the company is currently working on an iOS version as well. Furthermore, the service includes a feature called SyncArchive, which is a folder inside of Sync that gives you access to archives of previous versions of your synced files.

VIA: Android Community

SOURCE: BitTorrent Blog

BitTorrent Sync Android app arrives as cloud-less Dropbox alternative is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If George Lucas were born in the Elizabethan era along with William Shakespeare, what would Star Wars have been like? I’d like to think the story would have the same characters and elements, although it’d clearly be written in very different prose.

Ian Doescher had similar ideas, and it was those ideas that pushed him to rewrite the script of ”A New Hope” in iambic pentameter.

It reads like William Shakespeare’s typical work, although there’s nothing typical about this. It’s especially amusing to read R2-D2′s “beeps” and “meeps” amid all those “thous” and “arts” throughout the script.

Even the Sith Lord himself wasn’t spared, as the cover features Darth Vader decked out in Elizabethan-themed armor.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is available from ThinkGeek for $14.95(USD) and in the UK from Firebox for £11.99. Check out a 16-page excerpt here (PDF).

[via Geekologie]