Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-15-2019, 10:41 AM - Forum: Lounge
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World Of Warcraft Classic Aims To Make Azeroth Feel Dangerous Again
Over the 15 years since the launch of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has slowly sanded off some of Azeroth's rough edges. The world is still bustling with dangerous dungeons and harrowing raids, but these days it's a kinder, friendlier world. World of Warcraft Classic aims to fix that, to make Azeroth dangerous again--although it retains a few of the modern niceties.
Blizzard has announced a release date for World of Warcraft Classic, along with a closed beta and a series of stress tests leading up to its August launch. Recent hands-on time with WoW Classic showed a recognizably sparse version of the game, with even basic quest-tracking a little less clearly signposted. This is a WoW meant for fans who have been with the game since the beginning, and who want to recapture that feeling.
Production director Patrick Dawson and WoW Classic lead engineer Brian Birmingham explained the motivations behind this ambitious retrofitting of the popular MMORPG, and what they hope it brings to the fans.
"The community said, we want Classic WoW. And when we looked at it, it looked like a world with crashes, with teleport hacks. It didn't meet the quality bar that Blizzard has today," Dawson told GameSpot. "Well, what if we used our modern infrastructure? Can we retrofit that? So we embarked on a few weeks journey to explore what that world was."
The decision to recreate the classic feeling within the new infrastructure led to some decision points. For some players, the rough edges are part of the original authenticity. Blizzard was left to make determinations on what belonged and what didn't, and the question came down to tough judgment calls.
"Anything that would affect gameplay we want to make sure that we deliver something that is authentic." Birmingham said. "Where we feel like quality-of-life improvements are okay are things like, tabbing to complete a name in in-game mail. That's not a core part of the gameplay experience of leveling, and questing, and trying to explore the world.
"Challenge is part of it," Birmingham continued. "The world feels dangerous. There are difficult group quests out in the world, elite quests that you can't do by yourself, or you would have to over-level if you wanted to do them by yourself. Where they really push you to find somebody else to help you out, or out level them and come back later, or you can just leave them and go on. You don't have to complete every quest in every zone. You can choose your path through the world. So I think that is exactly the classic gameplay that people are looking for."
A different brand of challenge is presented by the PVP, which has undergone multiple phases and metas throughout the game's long lifespan. As in any competitive live game, some classes will be a fan favorite criticized as overpowered in one era only to be left behind in the next. The team says this is one of the main reasons it chose this specific iteration of WoW.
"The 1.12 system is what we're starting with, that's the one target that we aimed at," Birmingham said. "We said, '1.12 was where the game was the most patched, the most complete, and the most balanced.' That's what we wanted to set the systems at for WoW Classic."
That isn't to say that the game will be completely static, however. While the plan is to retain the game as it was in the 1.12 update in perpetuity, players will still find some content unlocking over time, recreating the feeling of being an active player as the game was first rolling out with updates.
"People are asking to be able to go back and play WoW Classic as it was," Birmingham said. "We wanted to create this, almost like a snapshot in time, but we do want have these progressive content unlocks. So things like, Blackwind Lair, and Ahn'Qiraj, and Naxxramas. We want those to unlock over time, as the community is ready for them, as they progress through those various pieces of content. At the same time the systems overall we want to lock in at 1.12, where we feel like they were the most complete and balanced."
The notion of ongoing updates as they originally appeared, though, raises the question of expansions. Blizzard has released seven expansions in all. And while later ones like Legion or Battle for Azeroth would feel out-of-place within the Classic framework, it stands to reason that some players may want to experience earlier expansions--such as The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King--in the context of World of Warcraft Classic. Blizzard isn't committing to this, but also hasn't ruled it out.
"The community's demand for WoW Classic is why we did WoW Classic," said Birmingham. "So we are certainly open to hearing what people think about it. At the same time what we are focused on right now is WoW Classic. That's what we are committed to delivering. We don't have any plans to announce anything past that."
Review: Venture Kid – A Workmanlike And Forgettable Mega Man Clone
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; if that is indeed the case, then few games are more overtly flattering to the classic Mega Man series than Venture Kid. This new release from FDG Entertainment isn’t shy when it apes the concept of Capcom’s legendary series, and while it does a reasonably satisfactory job of cornering what makes Mega Man games so enjoyable, it ultimately amounts to little more than a game-length equivalent of a playful elbow jab to the ribs as someone grins and says, “Hey, remember those old Mega Man games?”
The story follows Andy, a generic dude meaninglessly picking up orbs off the ground with an unnamed girl on a “distant island far away”. Just when the two have nearly wrapped up with their orb-collection duties, a nearby factory suddenly explodes, injuring the girl as Andy curses the name of someone named Teklov. Later that night, Andy reads in the paper that Teklov has built a space fortress as a ‘peacekeeping weapon’, and after using the power of baseless guesswork, Andy and the anonymous girl arrive at the conclusion that surely Teklov is up to no good. Another unnamed character enters the room – this time a burly, bearded man with an eyepatch – who hands Andy a gun and promises that more armaments are on the way, and Andy quickly leaves with murder on his heart.
As one would expect for an 8-bit game of this variety, the story isn’t enormously important, but the plot of Venture Kid is laughable even by retro standards. The nameless main characters and paper-thin setup seem to suggest that very little attention was paid to the narrative, and this is further driven home by how most levels in the game seem to have absolutely no connection to this evil Teklov figure; Andy just runs through different areas of the island and kills whatever gets in his way, Teklov’s sinister plans be damned. Still, as nonsensical as it may be, the plot isn’t really important to this primarily gameplay-focused title; as long as you don’t come into this one expecting much, you won’t be disappointed.
Gameplay takes the shape of a standard Mega Man platformer, right down to the three ‘on-screen projectile’ limit on your standard pea-shooter and the occasionally infuriating obstacle placement. Each stage sees you running ‘n’ gunning your way through a collection of easily-dispatched enemies and mildly difficult stage hazards, culminating in a boss fight that, once cleared, grants you a new weapon which will be particularly effective against one of the other bosses. Along the way, you can also pick up orbs scattered around each stage to spend on a shop in the pause menu, offering various boons like health upgrades and weapon energy refills. It’s a tried-and-tested formula that’s been done to death already, but to give credit where credit is due, Venture Kid does a decent job of using this formula; the game isn’t innovative by any stretch of the word, but it at least executes what it sets out to do with a reasonable degree of skill.
Generally speaking, Venture Kid is hardly what we’d describe as a difficult game, but it does every now and then throw a mean difficulty spike at you that simply feels unearned, such as a leap across a gap with a length that only barely falls short of your maximum jump length. These moments, infrequent as they may be, show up just a little bit too often for our liking, and kill any momentum or enjoyment you might be having in a stage – especially if they cause a Game Over and force you to replay an entire stage again. The stages are short enough that you’re not completely discouraged from trying again, but our issue also rests in how the other parts of the levels are simply uninspired; the stage design is mediocre at best and rage-inducing at worst.
As far as replayability is concerned, there are a few different game modes at the start to keep you in the loop, but all of them recycle the same basic content. The default mode, “Classic”, has you run through the levels in a linear fashion, which removes the guesswork in figuring out the weapon order – perfect if you just want to burn through the campaign as fast as possible. Next up is the “Adventure” mode, which plays more like a classic Mega Man game in how you can select any of the initial eight levels and create your own path of progression. Finally, there’s the “Survival” mode, which randomly runs you through segments of stages until you inevitably die, with the number of cleared segments becoming your score for that run. Beneath all of this, there’s an underlying achievement system that rewards you for pulling off certain feats, such as beating a boss with only one health heart left, and while it proves to be rather bog-standard achievement filler, completionists will no doubt be pleased at what’s on offer.
As for the presentation, Venture Kid makes no effort to differentiate itself from its inspiration or its peers, this is about as standard an 8-bit game as it gets. Levels are themed around tired concepts like ‘Desert’ and ‘Jungle’, and though what’s here for the spritework and animation is solid, it all feels a little too simple. There’s no pizzazz, no effort made at wowing the player; just a straightforward art direction that makes no effort at pushing the boundaries of the medium. Similarly, the soundtrack lacks the anthemic presence of many of the Mega Man games, instead consisting of a forgettable collection of chiptune tracks that satisfy, even if they fail to impress.
Conclusion
Venture Kid is the sort of game that understands how blatantly it borrows from previous genre luminaries yet makes no effort at even attempting to surpass them; this is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ sort of experience. Bearing that in mind, it’s inevitably the kind of game that you’ll spend a few hours on, think “Well, that was… fun”, then move on and never return to it. Still, it does what it sets out to do – copying the Mega Man formula – and, when viewed as the sum of its parts, it does a reasonable job. If you’ve played all the Mega Man games to death and simply must have more, you could do a lot worse than playing through Venture Kid. If you don’t fall in this camp but are still looking to scratch that retro action platformer itch, then we’d suggest you pick up one of the numerous Mega Man collections already available on the eShop instead. Why play the imitation when you can have the original?
Super Mario Maker 2 Nintendo Direct Airing Tomorrow, 15th May
Completely out of the blue, a Super Mario Maker 2 Nintendo Direct has been announced to air tomorrow, 15th May.
The show will be 15 minutes long and “packed” with info about the upcoming release. The following description for the Direct has just been shared in a press release.
“Tune in on Wednesday, May 15 at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET for a roughly 15-minute presentation packed with information all about Super Mario Maker 2 for Nintendo Switch.”
Times: 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 11pm BST
As always, we’ll be hosting the video right here on Nintendo Life, so make sure to check back with us tomorrow. As a reminder, the game launches on 28th June, just a couple of weeks after E3.
Excited? Ready to learn more about the game? Let us know what you hope to see in the video with a comment below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-15-2019, 10:41 AM - Forum: Windows
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Electronic voting: What Europe can learn from Estonia
The May 23-26 European Parliament elections are fast approaching, and in the run up to these critical elections, many questions have been raised over security, foreign election interference and the role of technology in the process. Canada’s cyber security agency recently found that half of all developed countries holding elections in 2018 reported some form of cyber threat to their democratic processes, a threefold increase since 2015.
Such threats have created concerns around the targeting of digital components of elections, as detailed in previous Microsoft blogs. As a result, some governments have scaled back the use of technology in their election systems, even though many of the high-profile digital attacks have focused on the spread of disinformation on social media rather than targeting the actual election infrastructure.
Governments can respond to election-related cyber threats in a way that embraces technology and creates a system which commands public trust. Estonia implemented the EU’s first country-wide internet voting (i-voting) system in 2005. Two years later, a denial-of-service cyberattack targeted both private and public sector websites. It happened after a Soviet-era statue was relocated, and hit media outlets, banks and government bodies. Estonians could not use cash machines or online banking. Newspapers and broadcasters were unable to reach their audiences.
The scare could have prompted Estonia to roll back on its electronic innovations, but instead it chose to, apply lessons learned, lean into technology, opting for good cybersecurity and technological advancement as the best defense.
Estonia’s i-voting success story is now world renown, with hundreds of foreign delegations visiting to see the system in practice. It serves as a model for governments on how online voting can be done securely and increase trust in the election process. Estonia also demonstrated leadership on election security by co-chairing the group that prepared the Compendium on the Cybersecurity of Election technology that set baseline for the European Commission’s package on Securing Free and Fair European Elections. Tarvi Martens, Chairman of the Estonian Electronic Voting Committee, spoke to Microsoft about the benefits of their system, challenges for the future, and advice to other EU countries.
When and why did Estonia introduce internet voting?
The government began the legislative process in 2001 and introduced the new voting system in 2005. By 2002, Estonia had also introduced an ID card system and by 2005 almost 80% of the electorate had this ID card. At the time, Estonians were saying they did everything with their computer – their banking, taxes, signing documents – and asked: “why not voting?”
Could you talk us through the process of casting a vote online?
The process is actually pretty simple. The voter goes to the elections webpage and downloads an application to cast their vote. Next, the voter identifies his or herself using their ID card inserted into smart card reader or their mobile phone. Once the voter is authenticated with a PIN code it would say “welcome, here is your candidate list.” The voter can then cast their vote for their preferred candidate. The whole process takes around 40 seconds – unless you take more time to decide which candidate to vote for!
How is the internet voting process secured?
Securing the internet voting process is similar to the way we secure other high importance information systems such as banking and critical infrastructure. The trick is to guarantee the secrecy of the votes.
To do this, the ballots are immediately encrypted on the computer when you vote, and they are decrypted centrally by the election commission only once they are anonymized. There is no tag of who voted how, so that’s how we can maintain secrecy and privacy. Our system is like using a double envelope system for a ballot, where we can only count – or decrypt – anonymous votes.
The voter can also check whether his or her vote has arrived at the election commission server properly using a secondary device. After the voter casts their vote online, they can then use an application on their smartphone to scan a QR code from the computer. The QR code enables your device to communicate to the state election servers to show the voter how he or she voted without compromising the privacy of the vote cast.
Finally, there are additional mechanisms to preserve the integrity of the electronic ballot box. Votes are registered with a third party –an accredited trust service provider who issues a timestamp. These timestamps, collected from the trust service provider logs, are later compared with the electronic ballot box to make sure they coincide. That ensures that the administrator of the electronic ballot box cannot delete votes at random or produce extra votes.
What about people’s sense of the integrity of the election? Do people feel safe in Estonia voting on the internet?
Trust in the system is rising continuously. Before this year we had three elections with around 31% of people voting on the internet. During the last elections in March we had a significant increase to 44% of voters using the online system. That is the highest proportion yet of people using i-voting in Estonia.
The further away a voter lives, the more likely they are to vote from home. Also, if you are between the ages of 25 and 45, you are more likely to vote online because young people are more familiar with technology.
Who benefits most from an i-voting system?
There is a correlation between i-voting and how far a voter lives from a polling station. The further away a voter lives, the more likely they are to vote from home. Also, if you are between the ages of 25 and 45, you are more likely to vote online because young people are more familiar with technology. I-voting is also helpful for people with disabilities. While Estonia has long supported making the voting process accessible for people with disabilities through paper-based voting from home, they can now also vote online. And of course, i-voting is pretty much the only option for people travelling or residing out of the country for a longer period.
What about cost? Is an i-voting system cheaper than a paper voting system?
Initially, there are additional costs. For example, as we introduced this additional voting method, we still had to maintain the paper-based voting infrastructure. But once it is set up, it is significantly cheaper. After the fourth election using i-voting, we calculated the costs and found out that the electronic vote is about half the price of a paper vote.
Is the i-voting process easier to manage?
Yes, because it is centralized. We can do things very fast and conveniently.
Have many government delegations come to Estonia to learn about your system?
There is a map of the world in our office, and we have put a pin in every country which has sent a delegation to visit. It’s hard to find a country without a pin in it! During the last election in March, we had over 100 foreign officials visiting Estonia from 30 countries around the world.
Flags representing foreign missions to the Estonian state electoral office.
Among these government delegations, what are the most common concerns about online voting?
We see a general fear of the unknown. It takes two things to introduce internet voting in a country: First, a kind of ID card or mobile ID – an electronic identity infrastructure.
Second, it takes political will. Politicians are most interested in getting re-elected. They don’t want to mess with the electoral system and the average politician doesn’t know much about the internet and security, so they would say, “let’s not mess with that.” So, it takes courage to start the process.
What advice would you give other EU countries regarding the adoption of technology?
You just have to make a start, at least at a research level. Introducing a new voting method is a wide, society-embracing topic and might take long time. Just have in mind that at some point internet voting will be inevitable.
Has there been interference or targeting of the online platforms in Estonia?
The elections have never been targeted specifically. The cyberattack of 2007 thankfully happened two months after the elections. That attack was regarded as the first countrywide cyberattack targeting all the sectors, both private sector and public sector. But I think our information security was high and we handled it well. There was one and a half days of disturbance and then it was contained.
What did you learn from that experience?
It was a very good exercise. Now we can teach others how to defend against those kinds of attacks. Those attacks and our ability to counter them led to the opening of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Estonia which has been one of the preeminent organizations leading the world’s discussions on the application of international law in cyberspace.
Are there any more technological innovations that you’re planning to implement in future elections?
There have been discussions about introducing voting on mobile devices, but we currently use the mobile device to verify the computer-based vote. If we move to voting from mobile devices, what do we use as second device for verification of the correct behavior of the mobile device? That’s the main challenge that we are thinking through right now. We are analyzing this, and after the European Parliament elections we will systematically research this issue. Overall, I would say that so far, we are proud of what we have achieved.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-15-2019, 04:18 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Hereditary Director's New Trailer For Movie Midsommar Is A Festival Of Fright
Director Ari Aster's Hereditary was one of the scariest horror movies 2018, and its mix of dark family drama and wild supernatural thrills made it a critical and commercial success. Expectations are high for Aster's follow-up Midsommar, which releases in July. A seriously creepy new trailer has been released.
Unlike March's first teaser, which was more concerned with setting a spooky mood than revealing many plot details, this latest promo is heavier on story. Florence Pugh (Fighting with my Family) plays a troubled young woman who is invited to mysterious festival in Sweden by her estranged boyfriend. But things don't get any better when she gets there, as the festival is being run by some sort of weird cult who have scary plans for the American travellers. Check it out below.
Midsommar also stars Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction), William Jackson Harper (The Good Place), and Will Poulter (Black Mirror). It releases on July 3.
In a recent interview with Vulture, Aster explained how Midsommar differs from Hereditary. "It's a breakup movie, in the same way that Hereditary is a family tragedy," he said. “It's less overtly a horror movie, but it's still working in that same space. It's very macabre. But people shouldn't go in expecting Hereditary."
Review: Thief Simulator – A Brief Robbery Of Your Spare Time
As illegal as it is in real-life, there’s something oddly satisfying about larceny in the digital world. From countless questlines for the Thieves Guild in The Elder Scrolls to the procedural heists of The Swindle, few things get your blood pumping in equal parts fear and elation quite like scoping a joint, filling your swag bag and legging it before the fuzz turn up. So when a game as cryptically titled as Thief Simulator sneaks its way onto Switch, it’s already in a good position to steal our attention (and our wallets) from the get go.
A few ‘missions’ in, and it soon becomes clear that Thief Simulator does exactly what it says on the tin. There’s no deep storyline full of double-crosses and elaborate heists, so don’t expect the kind of narrative tour de force you get with the Uncharted games. There aren’t huge open-worlds to a steal en masse in the vein of the Grand Theft Auto series, either. What you do get is a handful of neighbourhoods full of unsuspecting citizens and their precious valuables. You’re playing a character literally called The Thief, so you shouldn’t be expecting anything other than straight five-finger discounts.
In practice, Thief Simulator works like a cross between the Thief games (the good ones on PC, not that godawful reboot from 2014) and Payday 2. A sandbox sim is spent entirely in first-person, you’re slowly introduced to the easy-to-learn mechanics at play and how best to use them. You’ll start by using a crowbar to crudely smash a window and steal some kettles and saucepans. But later you’ll learn to pick a simple lock so you can gain access to a property without making so much noise. Not so long after you’re learning how to scope out a house, tagging the occupants to learn their routines and how to get away with more cumbersome items.
Thief Simulator has a lot of little systems running alongside one another, but it does a brilliant job of slowly introducing them to you at a pace that shows you just how many options you truly have. Pulling off simple jobs earns you XP, which in turn enables you to purchase better skills. It’s here you’ll learn how to pick tougher locks or identify items of interest faster. When you’re out on a job and you reach a climbable fence you can’t clamber over – because your agility isn’t high enough – you’ll know where to focus your skills next time you reach a new level. Stealing items and selling them at the local pawn shop will gain you cash, while more specific items can be sold off on a black market marketplace on the PC back at your garage HQ.
Occupants you’ve tagged will appear with white silhouettes, so you can track their movements when you’re nearby, which makes for some tense moments as you’re slowly opening drawers and cupboards in search of jewellery or cash. That same sense of intense fear comes into play when you accidentally trip an alarm system by smashing a window on a more expensive property, or walk out into a street and get spotted carrying a stolen TV. Now you’re driving away to outrun the cops or hiding in a nearby dumpster while the rozzers try and find you.
This is where Thief Simulator starts to trip itself up. Because when you’re slowly building up the details of a target location – building up a set of notes on routines and potential valuable locations before taking the risk to break in during the day or in the dead of night when they’re asleep – the game comes together like an illegal dream. But when you have to jump into a car and actually ‘get away’, you realise you might as well be driving a wet cardboard box. Even the cars in the Far Cry games drive better, and they have terrible driving models. It basically renders escaping utterly pointless, so you’ll always have to hide when things go awry.
There’s plenty of ways to enhance your jobs, including missions given to you by a cringe-worthy contact over the phone (complete with a knock-off New York accent) and intel you can buy on a certain location. These tips are expensive, but knowing a particular property has a high-tech security system or that there’s a key to the front door hidden outside can completely change the outcome of a thieving run. You can buy new gear as you level up and earn more cash – including mini cameras that can fit into mailboxes for some handy surveillance or cutters than remove planes of glass in a window – and some of those later skills effectively turn you into a silent god of theft.
The AI at play in Thief Simulator isn’t brilliant, which can make them both easy to avoid if you’re hidden in enough shadow, but also difficult to predict when a pedestrian just seemingly appears out of nowhere at the most inopportune time. It’s also odd that you can hit the same handful of properties in a row, but there’s no repercussions. If a house with plenty of valuables suddenly had bars on the window after you smashed one the night before, or had a dog patrolling at night because you entered the property during nightfall, you’d have to adjust your tactics for the promise of even better loot. Such systemic elements aren’t here, but the art of theft is still an addictive one.
As a short term experience, Thief Simulator is a lot of fun. But once you spend more than a few hours, you begin to find yourself repeating the same missions over again. With certain story quests locked behind certain character levels, you’re forced to hit the same set of houses over and over again. That initial thrill does briefly reappear every time you acquire a new skill or level up high enough to earn the ability to drill locks or hack security systems, but the grind becomes a little too much at times.
As a port, Thief Simulator is a decent effort on Switch. Despite the basic character, car and location designs, there are some moments of slowdown and pop-in becomes a fairly regular occurrence. It should be said that this is a game that doesn’t look amazing on PC either (something the developer intended in order to focus entirely on the craft of its gameplay), so this shouldn’t be mistaken as being entirely the product of poor optimisation for Switch.
Conclusion
If you’re tired of Payday 2’s often loud and at-large robbery antics – and you’d like to take a detour into the more quiet vocation of thievery – Thief Simulator has the new career for you. While it’s not the prettiest of games and it soon starts repeating itself, the sense of freedom you’re given to rob neighbourhoods full of unsuspecting victims is still an intriguing one. He might not be Garrett, but The Thief has plenty of skills to steal a place on Nintendo Switch.
The First Patch For Saints Row: The Third On Switch Rolls Out Later This Week
If you’ve played the Switch version of Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package since it was released last week, you might have noticed the open-world sandbox is a bit rough around the edges. To make the experience more enjoyable on Nintendo’s hybrid device, Deep Silver is issuing its first patch for this version of the game later this week. Below are the various fixes and improvements you can expect, courtesy of the Deep Silver website:
added auto-matchmaking feature
added low resolution particle rendering and related performance update
added credits sequence updates to icons & names
fixed an issue where audio would desync after switching to the main menu and back
subtitle fixes for female character customization
fixed user confirmation pop-up to reconnect to Nintendo Switch Online after connection loss
fixed auto matchmaking for public game play
fixed DLC Russian & Japanese localization
crash fix: forced termination may occur after selecting “End game” on the pose screen
general iterative bugfixes and performance optimizations
infinite loading screen fixed
user confirmation popup to reconnect to Nintendo Switch Online after connection loss
fixed International & Japanese subtitles and lip sync
subtitle fixed (subtitles for female character)
This patch will be ready for you to download to your Nintendo Switch from Thursday 16th May at 3AM CEST/ 4AM BST/ 9PM PST (15th May).
Deep Silver also mentioned how any “unusual issues” could be reported to the technical support team. This covers the following:
Input lag
Default low sensitivity in controls
Slider sensitivity in character creation
Texture and graphic bugs
If you encounter any of these problems, you can use this form to report the issue. You’ll also be required to provide as much information as possible (along with your Switch system number and SD card) so the tech support team can replicate and resolve the issue.
How has your experience with Saints Row been? Have you encountered any technical issues? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-15-2019, 04:18 AM - Forum: Windows
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Microsoft opens first Africa Development Centre in Kenya and Nigeria
It was almost three decades ago that Microsoft opened its first offices in Africa. In this time, we’ve witnessed incredible growth on the continent – more internet connectivity, more digital capability and more innovation. Africans have expanded the applications of technology, changing the way communities bank, farm and even access healthcare.
At Microsoft, we’re very fortunate to have played a part in realising this potential, building strong partnerships to accelerate digital transformation and create sustained societal impact. A big milestone for this investment came earlier this year, as we opened Africa’s first hyper-scale datacentres in South Africa, promoting business innovation in the cloud.
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As the next step on our journey in Africa, and to better understand a continent rapidly adopting technology in the cloud, and at the edge, Microsoft today launched its first Africa Development Centre (ADC). With two initial sites in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria, the ADC will serve as a premier centre of engineering for Microsoft, where world-class African talent can create solutions for local and global impact.
The ADC will be unlike any other existing investment on the continent. It will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact. Beyond that, it’s an opportunity to engage further with partners, academia, governments and developers – driving impact in sectors important to the continent, such as FinTech, AgriTech and OffGrid energy.
Phil Spencer, executive sponsor of the ADC and executive vice president at Microsoft
Local innovation, global impact
Africa is poised for innovation at the intelligent edge. To staff the ADC, we are seeking engineering talent from across the continent to fuel AI, machine learning and mixed reality innovation. Engineers have already started working, and we intend to recruit 100 full-time engineers by the end of the year – expanding to 500 across the two sites by 2023. Those interested can visit the ADC website
Cynthia Wasonga, software engineer, Microsoft
To build our talent pipeline, we’re also partnering with local universities to create a modern intelligent edge and cloud curriculum, totally unique to Africa. Graduates will have access to the ADC to build a relevant and meaningful career in data science, AI, mixed reality, application development and many more.
Our desire is to recruit exceptional engineering talent across the continent that will build innovative solutions for global impact. This also creates opportunities for engineers to do meaningful work from their home countries and be plugged into a global engineering and development organisation
Michael Fortin, corporate vice president at Microsoft and the lead in establishing the first ADC engineering team in Nairobi
Innovation at the edge Microsoft is already empowering many innovations at the edge with partners like Interswitch, SunCulture and M-KOPA. Through the ADC, we intend to invest in more cutting-edge solutions suitable for Kenya, Nigeria and the rest of the world.
Our Microsoft Cognition team and Windows team will be kick-starting our ADC efforts, focusing on AI-enabled cloud services, mixed reality experiences and rich applications that power the intelligent edge without disruption.
A long-term investment
The ADC supports Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. The ADC is the first Global Development Centre in Africa with a combined expected investment of US $100 million over the first five years of operation.
Apple contributes to new Statue of Liberty audio tour and AR app
By Mikey Campbell Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 05:47 pm PT (08:47 pm ET)
Apple reportedly lent a hand in — or at least facilitated — the creation of a new iOS app designed for the soon-to-open Statue of Liberty Museum, with the title serving both as a modern location-based audio tour and an augmented reality tool that brings Lady Liberty into the homes of millions.
Called “Statue of Liberty,” the app is the brainchild of renowned fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg, who spearheaded a three-year fundraising initiative to build the new Statue of Liberty Museum slated to open its doors on Liberty Island on Thursday.
Developed by Yap Studios in association with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, the app melds a year’s worth of digital scans and photographs to generate a highly detailed 3D model of sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s iconic figure, reports Vogue.
Leveraging Apple’s ARKit latticework, the title allows users to soar above the statue, view it from different angles, scales and during different times of day, as well as peer inside its skin to reveal the internal frame designed by Gustave Eiffel. A time-lapse mode offers a look at the statue against an ever-changing Manhattan skyline.
According to CNET, the app also includes a location-specific audio guide that details 15 points of interest on Liberty Island and another 20 in the museum itself. MapKit was used to enable indoor mapping, which triggers the audio assets on location.
Apple CEO Tim Cook touted the launch of “Statue of Liberty” in a tweet on Tuesday. It appears a chance meeting with Cook sparked von Fürstenberg’s interest in AR as an innovative solution for the museum.
“I met Tim Cook from Apple, and discovered first of all that he had never been to Liberty Island, so I arranged for him to go,” von Fürstenberg told Vogue. “Not even knowing what I was talking about, I said, Wouldn’t it be wonderful to give people an Apple experience when they go on the Island?’ I met the people who do apps and we started, not knowing where it would all end up. The foundation created this app that will reach hundreds of millions of people.”
At a launch event on Tuesday, von Fürstenberg said she met Cook after filming “Mother of Exile,” a documentary about the statue slated for release on HBO later this year. The designer also narrated a podcast called “Raising the Torch” to go along with the museum’s opening. It is unclear if Cook is involved in the documentary or podcast.
Vogue cites Apple as a “star donor” to von Fürstenberg’s project, though it remains unclear if the company committed funds to the initiative, assisted in development of the app or took part in the podcast production process. Considering the company is not affiliated with Yap or FRQNCY Media, co-producers of “Raising the Torch,” it seems the publication is confusing Apple’s technologies and platforms for active participation in the enterprise.
I have found memories of the Harry Potter books & films, and given we largely missed out on the Pokemon GO thing I thought I’d make a concerted effort to keep a closer eye on Niantic’s latest AR spectacle, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
We were hoping today’s press blast would reveal something a bit more concrete – a release date perhaps, or even some live game footage… but no, it’s just another hype trailer.
Can’t really do much with that, other than re-post it for your enjoyment:
It’s worth noting the game is available for pre-registration on Google Play and the Samsung Galaxy store though, If you’re into that kind of thing.
Hopefully the next press blast will be more revealing.
