The NBA’s regular season ends in just a couple of weeks, but Google just surprise-dropped a major overhaul of its popular Pixel Arena feature. The original Pixel Arena was advertised as a virtual space for fans to fully experience the NBA, but there wasn’t much to do other than play trivia and watch 3D shot recaps. The new Pixel Arena, however, is chock-full of activities for the discerning basketball fan, according to an official blog post.
The biggest change is that users can now roam freely around the space, so the emphasis on menu-diving has been reduced in favor of natural exploration. As you roam about the virtual arena, you want to look your best for onlookers, so the avatar creation process has also been significantly overhauled. The updated avatar builder now takes more natural skin tones into consideration, with adherence to the 10-shade Monk Skin Tone (MST) scale.
Google was also not shy about adding new virtual fashion and accessory options, saying there are now over a “trillion style combos inspired by futuristic streetwear and basketball culture.” Of course, each avatar comes with a fake Pixel 7 Pro because brand synergy. Additionally, the highlight clips tool has been updated, allowing users to remix 3D highlights by spotlighting specific viewing angles and the like.
Google and the NBA have added some new mini-games to the roster, though they continue to be trivia-based. Still, the app is loaded with machine learning algorithms that automatically populate new trivia questions based on recent events. For instance, if a player scores a career high, you will likely encounter a relevant question sooner rather than later. All of those modes are available in single-player or multiplayer. If trivia isn’t your bag, try Niantic’s AR streetball app.
Google’s Pixel Arena is part of the official NBA app. Just sign-in with your NBA ID and head to the Discover tab and give it a go. New highlights will continue to be added as the season winds down and the playoffs begin. Despite being a Google offering, Pixel Arena is available for both Android and iOS phones.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-upgrades-its-nba-pixel-arena-app-just-in-time-for-the-playoffs-175600395.html?src=rss
Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents the district where The Covenant School shooting occurred, posted a Christmas photo with his family toting guns in 2021.
If you own an Apple device, check your notifications: Apple has officially released updates for each of its major Platforms. The MacOS 13.3, and iOS / iPadOS 16.4 and WatchOS 9.4 updates include 21 new emoji, improved voice isolation for calls and a smattering of minor bug fixes.
To start, the emoji keyboard is five new animals, two new hand gestures, three new colored hearts and a handful of household objects such as a folding fan, a flute and maracas. When you’re not spamming friends with the new goose emoji, you’ll be enjoying the benefits of the more subtle updates. Cellular calls now have Voice Isolation, designed to block out ambient noise. The Duplicates album in Photos will now cross check with images stored in the iCloud Shared Photo Library to keep your albums clean. There’s even a new accessibility feature that helpfully dims the screen when it detects flashing lights or strobe effects in video content — all on top of a series of bug fixes that address issues with content management for parents, accidental alarm muting and more.
Apple is also reintroducing the new HomeKit architecture it pulled from iOS 16.2 and MacOS Ventura 13.1 last year. At the time, users were reporting that certain Siri commands weren’t working correctly and that smart home devices weren’t showing up correctly in the Home App. Not only have those issues apparently been addressed, but Apple also notes that a pairing issue with Matter-compatible has also been resolved.
Ready to send some new Emoji? You can try the latest OS for yourself by navigating to your device’s settings app to update.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-164-is-out-with-bug-fixes-and-a-ton-of-new-emoji-181331049.html?src=rss
The FBI’s cybersecurity division has been purchasing bulk internet data from a little-known tech firm based in Florida, Motherboard reports. Team Cymru, which calls itself a “global leader in cyber threat intelligence,” sells access to bulk web traffic and claims it can provide clients access to a “super majority of…
China’s Chang’e 5 rover has found tiny glass beads containing water in an impact crater on the Moon. Samples collected from a 2020 mission found beads with water content as high as 2,000 parts per million (PPM). Given the prevalence of these glass spheres on the lunar surface, there may be enough to provide 71 trillion gallons of water.
Some beads formed when asteroids collided with the Moon millions of years ago, while others came from ancient volcanoes. Scientists believe the water originated from a chemical reaction when hydrogen ions emitted from the sun — transported to the lunar surface from solar winds — combined with oxygen atoms inside the beads. The water-filled beads are tiny, ranging from “tens of micrometers to a few millimeters.” Still, there are enough on the Moon’s surface to (theoretically) supply an estimated 270 trillion kilograms of water — enough to fill 100 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
However, scientists haven’t yet figured out how to collect them, and they would need to heat them to around 212 degrees Fahrenheit to extract water. Still, they could be a resource for future lunar settlements, where astronauts could use water for drinking, bathing, cooking, cleaning and even producing rocket fuel.
Scientists believe other moons in our Solar System may have similar beads. “Our direct measurements of this surface reservoir of lunar water show that impact glass beads can store substantial quantities of solar wind-derived water on the moon and suggest that impact glass may be water reservoirs on other airless bodies,” the study’s authors wrote. “The presence of water, stored in impact glass beads, is consistent with the remote detection of water at lower-latitude regions of the Moon, Vesta and Mercury. Our findings indicate that the impact glasses on the surface of Solar System airless bodies are capable of storing solar wind-derived water and releasing it to space.”
The glass beads aren’t our first glimpse at water on the Moon. In 2009, NASA crashed a probe into the Cabeus crater that led to water detection; in 2018, NASA found direct evidence of ice deposits in the Moon’s permanently shadowed craters on its north and south poles. NASA and China / Russia plan to put lunar bases at the Moon’s South Pole within the next decade; the competing initiatives both hope to have inhabitable bases ready by the early-to-mid-2030s.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/water-trapped-in-tiny-glass-beads-on-the-moon-could-hydrate-future-settlements-200030344.html?src=rss
When Rode released the original Wireless GO, it was an instant success. The ease of use, audio quality and reasonable price made wireless microphones much more accessible. In fact it was so successful that it spawned a number of copycat products from rivals. After releasing the Wireless GO II ($299) with dual mics, the company is back with a more affordable option – the $149 Wireless ME. There’s also a new video app called Rode Capture aimed at creators which offers tight integration with the Wireless ME and other products from the company.
If you’re thinking “more affordable” means fewer features, then you’d be right. But also you might be surprised. Even though there initially appears to be just one transmitter (mic) and one receiver, the latter also has a mic built-in so you can still record two speakers at the same time with their own separate audio files. That said, Rode is calling the second mic the “ME mic” and describes it as a “narrator” microphone because you can’t use it wirelessly (it’s the one that plugs into your recording device) so it can only really be used by someone off camera. That obviously is no problem if you’re not recording video, but worth knowing if you are.
There are, of course, other minor compromises. For one, the receiver doesn’t have any type of display, so visual feedback for connectivity is limited to a pair of LEDs. There doesn’t appear to be any feedback for gain levels at all. There’s also no onboard storage for recording away from a camera, computer or a phone. This also means there’s no option to record a safety track at a lower gain level which, given the lack of a way to see levels means you’ll have to really be sure you have everything set right up front. As a reminder, though, the ME is half the price of the GO II.
Photo by James Trew / Engadget
There are tools to help, though. The Wireless ME comes with a feature called GainAssist which internally monitors the signal and sets levels automatically depending on your environment and the volume of the subject. This definitely helps keep things from clipping, but you can still go into the red with it. It appears to be using either a limiter or compression (or both) but you can still make it go into the red. There’s a “dynamic” mode too for when recording things with a more consistent volume than speech.
In terms of range, you can expect about 100 meters / 328 feet (line of sight) but in practice this can vary a little in either direction depending on the conditions. This is a shorter range than the Wireless GO II (200 meters / 656 feet) and DJI’s Mic (250 meters / 820 feet) but likely ample for most scenarios. As for battery life, it’s a respectable seven hours but there’s no charging case as with DJI or Anker’s solutions.
With no way to change settings directly on the device, you’ll want to get familiar with the Rode Central app. It’s here where you’ll be able to turn the receiver’s microphone on or off if you want to use it, change whether it records to one or two separate files (if using both mics) and adjust the gain settings. There are versions for both desktop and mobile (Android/iOS) so you can change modes on the go, even if it’s a bit more involved than doing it on the receiver as with DJI and Anker’s products.
Given that the narrator-guest setup isn’t ideal for recording two speakers on camera at the same time it’s a shame that the receiver doesn’t have the option to plug an external 3.5mm lav mic into it. This would mean you could theoretically run one with a longer cable and have two on camera hosts. You can still use 3.5mm mics with the main transmitter though. Alternatively, if you have access to another transmitter, such as a Wireless GO II, you can pair it with the ME’s receiver and record up to three people at the same time – though two of them will have to share an audio channel in case having separate files for all speakers is important to you.
Rode
The interoperability between the Wireless GO II and the ME shows that Rode is thinking about how these products can work together, meaning creators can collaborate seamlessly with their own gear or continue using older products even as new ones come around. Expect to see more interoperability with other wireless devices in the future.
Along with the new microphone kit is the aforementioned Capture app. It’s a dedicated video app with a twist: direct access to the settings of compatible Rode microphones. Most video apps don’t even let you know what mic you’re using which can cause anxiety when you’re not sure it’s working with the one you plugged in. Having this assurance alone is useful and the direct access to microphone settings is always going to be a welcome bonus for creators. The app is entirely free and doesn’t require a Rode product to work but will need one of Rode’s compatible products if you wish to access its settings.
The Wireless ME is available for $149 starting today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rodes-wireless-me-squeezes-a-second-mic-into-its-receiver-230032706.html?src=rss
Aston Martin’s Vulcan hypercar has been dubbed by the company as its “wildest.” With a $2.3 million sticker price, just what makes this car so remarkable?
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