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‘Iron Man VR’ will hit PS VR February 28th

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In Iron Man VR, Stark has retired from making weapons to spend more time creating tech to aid his alter ego’s battle against evil. But Ghost holds a grudge against him after witnessing all the damage his weapons caused.

Ghost, a long-time antagonist of Iron Man in Marvel’s comics, appeared in the movie Ant-Man and The Wasp. Here, she’s a “hacker and anti-corporate activist who repurposes old Stark Industries weapons.” She attacks Stark locations around the planet, which will inevitably lead to a showdown with Iron Man.

Meanwhile, the developer revealed what the $50 Iron Man VR digital deluxe edition includes. Along with the game (which will itself cost $40), you’ll receive 12 research points to unlock weapons and upgrades earlier than you would through gameplay alone, a digital copy of the soundtrack, four Iron Man armor skins and a PS4 theme. Pre-order bonuses include another four Iron Man looks, a second theme and a one month trial of Marvel Unlimited.

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Instagram takes its first steps into becoming an AR changing room

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Instagram Spark AR GIF

The feature allows you to experiment with different colors and models as well. Using lipstick as an example, you can see how different shades look by tapping through a color selector toward the bottom of the interface. Once you’ve tried on a product, you can purchase it without leaving Instagram. It’s also possible to invite your friends to try something on through stories and direct messages. To check out the feature, you’ll need the latest version of Instagram on iOS or Android.

While it seemed inevitable Facebook would find a way to use Spark AR to sell products, the company has done fun things with the platform too. In August, the company opened up Spark AR, allowing anyone to create their own augmented reality filters.

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Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency loses backing from PayPal

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A few days after the Wall Street Journal suggested that some companies announced as initial backers for Facebook’s cyptocurrency were reconsidering support, PayPal has announced it will end its participation in the Libra Association. Founding members invest $10 million to fund the association, and as CNBC notes, it’s unclear what happens to that money if participants pull out of the agreement.

PayPal:

PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time and to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations. We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future. Facebook has been a longstanding and valued strategic partner to PayPal, and we will continue to partner with and support Facebook in various capacities.

There’s no word from other high-profile backers like Mastercard and Visa, while Facebook exec — and former president of PayPal — David Marcus previously tweeted that the “official 1st wave of Libra Association members will be formalized in the weeks to come.” We’ll see who remains a backer — the initial list of 28 names can be seen below — by then.

Mastercard, PayPal, PayU (Naspers’ fintech arm), Stripe, Visa, Booking Holdings, eBay, Facebook/Calibra, Farfetch, Lyft, Mercado Pago, Spotify AB, Uber Technologies, Inc., Iliad, Vodafone Group, Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase, Inc., Xapo Holdings Limited, Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures, Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva,Mercy Corps, Women’s World Banking.



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Instagram’s Threads is compelling, but kind of creepy

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On the surface, Threads is essentially an extension of Instagram’s Close Friends feature for Stories, which was introduced in 2018. Close Friends, in case you’re not familiar with it, lets you share pictures, videos and message only with groups of people you’ve carefully selected. In fact, if you haven’t created a Close Friends list on Instagram, you’ll need to do that the first time you fire up Threads in order to use it. I did not have a Close Friends list, but creating one was fairly easy: you just go through the list of people you’re following and choose whomever you want to add.

That step is important because you can only share things with people on that list in Threads. You can send things to all of them at once, or to individual people, but they have to be on that list. For the most part, I picked people I know in real life, since those are the ones I’m most likely to have meaningful, private conversations with. Once you have your list ready, Threads will ask if you want to create shortcuts for up to eight of your closest Close Friends. This puts their profile picture next to the camera shutter button for quick access. (I sort of I wish I had in the main Instagram app.)

Instagram

Instagram has billed Threads as a “camera-first” app (it’s coming for you again, Snapchat), so right when you open it you go straight into camera mode. Like on Instagram, you can tap the shutter once to take a picture or hold it to record a video. My main instinct after taking a picture was to swipe to add an effect or filter, but you can’t do that in Threads. There’s no word on whether that staple of Instagram will be coming in the future. For now, all you can do to your photos or video is add text or scribble on them.

From the camera view, the main interface consists of a shutter button, shortcuts and Home. The latter is where you can instantly get a view of all your direct messages, as well as create groups and change settings, including status (more on that shortly), shortcuts and themes. For example, you can choose between dark and light modes for your app.

No matter where you are in Threads though, whether it be Home or your direct messages, you always have easy access to the camera and Close Friends shortcuts. And in your DMs, you can view people’s Instagram Stories, but if you want to view their entire profile the app will redirect you to Instagram. That’s understandable since Threads is intended to be a messaging app, not another way to browse and like your friends’ pictures.

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NHTSA reviews claims Tesla should have recalled 2,000 cars

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We’ve asked Tesla for comment. It previously said that it delivered the May update out of an “abundance of caution” and that its EVs were “10 times less likely” to catch fire than gas-powered cars. Its statement at the time made clear that the software would affect charge and thermal management settings.

The update had been prompted by a Model S bursting into flames in Hong Kong, although there have been multiple seemingly spontaneous fires over the past several years. Much as with the lithium-ion batteries in your mobile devices, there’s a chance that overheating or charging issues could trigger chemical reactions that set the EVs’ batteries ablaze.

There’s no certainty that the NHTSA’s review will lead to a formal investigation or recall request. Nonetheless, the case illustrates the virtues and vices of over-the-air software updates for cars. They can mitigate or eliminate problems that previously would have required a dealership visit, if one was even possible — how many cars can receive brake performance tweaks through a patch? At the same time, there is a concern that car companies might use software to avoid dealing with deep-seated hardware issues.

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Toyota is using VR to train robots as in-home helpers

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The VR training system allows human teachers to see what the robot is seeing live, in 3D, from its sensors. The teacher can instruct the robot and annotate the 3D scene, for instance adding a note on how to grasp a handle. This allows human trainers to teach robots arbitrary tasks with a variety of objects, instead of specific tasks like they would perform in a more controlled setting.

TRI’s system allows the robots to be more flexible. They don’t require a complete map of the house. Instead, they only need to understand the objects that are relevant to a behavior being performed. And thanks to fleet learning, once one robot is trained in a task, they all learn it.

The system isn’t perfect yet. In its video, TRI reminds viewers that it creates research prototypes, not product concepts. Still, the VR-based system could change the way robots learn and how we’re able to use them in different settings.

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Le Creuset’s Star Wars collection includes a $900 dutch oven

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Unlike Lego’s numerous Star Wars tie-ins, Le Creuset’s new collection won’t spoil The Rise of Skywalker for you. The collection includes a bit of everything. There’s a Porg pie bird — a pie bird, for the uninitiated, is used to vent steam from a pie while it bakes; three droid-themed mini Dutch ovens; and a Death Star-themed silicone trivet mat. But, if we’re honest, none of those compare with the brilliance that is the “Han Solo in Carbonite Signature Roaster.” I mean, look at the thing, it’s beautiful. That said, prepare to pay a pretty credit to have the rakish smuggler adorn your cookware; the limited-edition roaster will cost $450.

Tatooine Dutch Oven

At $450, however, the Han Solo roaster isn’t even the most expensive item in the collection. That distinction goes to the striking hand-made Tatooine round Dutch oven. According to the company, it will only sell four Tatooine Dutch ovens in the US, and just one will set you back a cool $900. Complete with Tatoonie’s binary stars, Le Creuset promises, “Our Dutch oven promises an end result that’s anything but dry — unlike the sun-scorched lands of Tatooine.”

To the company’s credit, most of the items in the collection will be a lot more affordable. The Death Star and Millennium Falcon trivets, for example, will cost $20. The Porg pie bird mentioned above will set you back $25, and the three mini dutch ovens will cost $30 apiece. The Star Wars x Le Creuset collection will be available in the US starting on November 1st at Le Creuset and Williams Sonoma stores.



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Iranian cyberattack targeted a US presidential campaign

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The intruders “were not technically sophisticated,” Microsoft said, but they were determined. They conducted extensive research of personal info to identify accounts and potentially fool account recovery systems, sometimes obtaining phone numbers used for two-factor authentication. There were over 2,700 attempts to identify accounts over the roughly month-long stretch. Phosphorous frequently used spear phishing in hopes it might trick users into providing login details through fake web forms.

Microsoft said it had notified Phosphorous’ targets, and was helping compromised users secure their accounts. It also recommended that political figures use its AccountGuard program to get advanced monitoring and threat alerts.

Iran hasn’t acknowledged its involvement in the attacks. However, they wouldn’t be surprising in light of escalating tensions between the US and Iran that have included digital warfare. Iran has also been accused of conducting a Russia-like disinformation campaign meant to skew American politics ahead of the 2020 presidential election. If Iran is involved, this would mainly represent one of the most overt attacks to date.

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A mind-controlled exoskeleton helped a paralyzed man walk again

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As part of a study with the University of Grenoble Alpes in France, the patient, who goes by Thibault, agreed to have two five-centimeter discs of his skull replaced with brain sensors, each with 64 electrodes. The researchers mapped Thibault’s brain to determine which areas become active when he thinks about walking or moving his arms and used those maps to train the system. Thibault first practice by imagining walking and moving an avatar on a computer screen. He was then strapped to the 65 kg exoskeleton suit and successfully used it to walk.

The system isn’t perfect yet. It still requires overhead support to keep the user from falling, but because the electrodes are not implanted directly in the brain, they have a reduced risk of brain infection. Previous experiments, which placed the electrodes in the brain, stopped working when cells built up around the electrodes. Researchers don’t expect that to happen with these, and Thibault’s electrodes are still working after 27 months. With some fine tuning, the researchers say this system could improve patients’ quality of life, and with shrinking tech like we’ve seen in other exosuits, it could eventually be less cumbersome.

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