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The architect behind Atari’s VCS retro console just quit

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“I was hoping to see the project through to the end and that it wouldn’t come to this, but I have little choice other than to pursue other opportunities,” Wyatt said in a statement.

Despite the departure of the project’s lead architect and his firm, Atari seems confident that it can launch the device. In a statement to Gamasutra, it said:

“It is Atari’s policy not to comment on an isolated matter under dispute, only to say that the Atari VCS project has always been a team effort and its success has never been and will never be dependent on any single individual or partner.

We remain confident in the Atari VCS as the entire team works diligently to bring forth its vision according to plan, and we will continue to communicate accordingly over the coming weeks and months, including hands-on presentations to key media and partners planned for later this fall.”

Atari has also published a Medium post to update fans about the VCS, along with photos of the device’s custom thermal solution, PCB board and case. In it, the company confirmed that it would operate more like a computer than a fully-functional game system, like what The Register said in its piece. The publication compared it to a Steam Machine, since it wouldn’t run its own distinct operating system.

That said, it also assured its crowdfunding backers that the hardware they’ll get “will be 100% finished.” It’s just that the software it’s running will be an early access version. The company said it will ask its backers, who are supposed to receive their consoles earlier than everybody else, for feedback before the device’s retail launch next year.

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Sennheiser’s $200 gaming headset promises 100 hours of battery life

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The headset works with PC, Mac and PS4. It promises reliable audio with near-zero delay, and of course, the audio quality that Sennheiser brings to all of its products. Like the company’s other gaming headsets, the GSP 370 has a noise-cancelling microphone, which minimizes background noise and can be muted by lifting the boom arm. It has a split, padded headband and memory foam ear cushions. Plus, the ear cups are connected with ball-joint hinges, so they’ll adjust to the user’s face for a custom fit.

Sennheiser’s gaming headsets have consistently earned solid reviews and ranked as top gamer picks. We don’t expect any less with the GSP 370, which are available starting today for $199.95.

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MIT-IBM developed a faster way to train video recognition AI

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The trick is in shifting how video recognition models view time. Current models encode the passage of time in a sequence of images, which creates bigger, computationally-intensive models. The MIT-IBM researchers designed a temporal shift module, which gives the model a sense of time passing without explicitly representing it. In tests, the method was able to train the deep-learning, video recognition AI three times faster than existing methods.

The temporal shift module could make it easier to run video recognition models on mobile devices. “Our goal is to make AI accessible to anyone with a low-power device,” said MIT Assistant Professor Song Han. “To do that we need to design efficient AI models that use less energy and can run smoothly on edge devices where so much of AI is moving.”

By reducing the computing power required for training, the method might also help reduce AI’s carbon footprint. It could help platforms like Facebook and YouTube spot violent or terrorist footage, and it might allow medical institutions like hospitals to run AI applications locally, rather than in the cloud, which could keep sensitive data more secure. The researchers will present their findings in a paper at the International Conference on Computer Vision later this month.

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Open world space game ‘Outer Wilds’ lands on the PS4 October 15th

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In a blog post announcing the release, Mobius Digital producer Kelsey Rice said all the secrets players uncover are important and will help shed light on “a web of interconnected mysteries.” None of them was written in as filler for an unimportant storyline, so the producer is urging interested players not to watch others playing the game until they’ve played it themselves. You don’t have to wait that long anyway: the game is landing on the PS4 on October 15th.

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California’s new police body cam law blocks the use of facial recognition

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In August, backers of California’s Body Camera Accountability Act pointed out a test of facial recognition software that identified 26 state lawmakers as criminals. They argued it showed the flaws of such technology, and now Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB1215 into law, preventing law enforcement in the state from “installing, activating, or using any biometric surveillance system in connection with an officer camera or data collected by an officer camera” through 2023.

The bill’s sponsor, Phil Ting said of facial recognition tech, “It’s not ready for prime time, as it falsely matches innocent people with mugshots, including me.” ACLU technology and civil liberties attorney Matt Cagle said “With this law, California has acted boldly to stem the expansion of a surveillance state that presents an unprecedented threat to our rights and liberties. ace-scanning police body cameras have no place on our streets, where they can be used for dragnet and discriminatory surveillance of people going about their private lives, including their locations and personal associations.”



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Windows 10 preview brings Android phone calls to your PC

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You’ll have to be ready for potential glitches when this is pre-release software. Microsoft has warned that older versions of some anti-cheat game software can produce crashes on this Windows build, for example. Don’t try this if you absolutely depend on a reliable PC. If that’s no obstacle, though, you no longer need third-party tools (or an all-Apple setup) to juggle phone calls while you work.

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Instagram’s new Story camera makes it even more like Snapchat

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Ever since its arrival in 2016, the Instagram Stories feature has had a very familiar look and feel compared to Snapchat. Today Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that it’s rolling out an updated camera with easier to browse effects and filters that are easier to sort through — apparently they still have energy left after killing the “Following” feed and adding Dark Mode. It still looks a lot like Snapchat, although maybe you’ll find it more unique than we did.

There are other new features too, like a “Create” mode where you can play around with the interactive stickers without taking a picture first, and you can even use a GIF as the background for your next Story post. The features are live now, so make sure you’re the first one on your timeline to use them.



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Andy Rubin shows off a phone with a ‘radically different formfactor’

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We’ve seen phones of many shapes and sizes over the years, but it looks like Essential’s next device could go in yet another direction. Android co-founder, Essential CEO and recipient of a reported $90 million payout from Google after a misconduct investigation Andy Rubin posted pictures of a new device on Twitter that is taller and thinner than you’re used to seeing, pointing out a “new UI for a radically different formfactor.”

Other images and video showing the back of the device teased a “colorshift” material that changed shades from different angles. Last December Essential announced its debut PH-1 phonewas effectively discontinued, but promised a follow-up device and has continued releasing software updates.

In a world where phone screens keep getting bigger and wider — including fold-out displays and second screens — going taller to adjust the placement of important info and notifications is certainly one way to stand out. Last year Rubin suggested a way to solve phone addiction is by moving to a “relatively small” screen combined with software that responds mostly to voice commands — is this it?



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Apple’s first TV+ holiday special will star Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds

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There’s no mention of when it might appear, although it wouldn’t arrive for holiday 2019 unless it’s effectively complete.

Apple has been rapidly expanding the list of shows and movies on TV+, but there’s still a lot of ground left to cover genre-wise beyond dramas and kids’ programming. It needs additions like this to cater to a variety of viewers, even if it’s just to give revelers something to watch after recovering from a holiday dinner.

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Twitter admits your phone number may have been used for targeting ads

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The company maintained that it never shared “personal data” with partners or other outsiders, and that it had resolved the problem as of September 17th. It’s also “taking steps” to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Twitter didn’t know how many people might have been affected, though, and was reporting this primarily to be “transparent” about what happened.

This isn’t likely to go over well with critics when Facebook caught flak just over a year earlier for using phone numbers for ad targeting. Whether or not Twitter intended to use phone numbers, the effect is the same — it was using sensitive account details for ad targeting without users’ knowledge or permission. Regulators may be concerned enough to take a look, especially since they just finished slapping Facebook with fines for its own less-than-careful approach to user data.

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