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Cult of Mac: ‘What If…?’ Vision Pro app shows promise of spatial gaming
Marvel Studios' new What If…? An Immersive Story is a free app for Apple’s Vision Pro headset that combines interactivity with storytelling in a brand-new way. Is it a game? Is it an episode of the What If…? animated TV series? It’s not entirely either. It’s an hour-long story where you’re the main character, casting spells with your hands and collecting the Infinity Stones.
If you aren’t a Marvel fan, you’ll find the story a bit drab. But if you want to see the bleeding edge of what’s possible in gaming when you can seamlessly switch between VR and AR with natural hand controls, you need to check it out.
Reuters: Boeing Starliner capsule nears first crewed ISS docking as new issues arise
Boeing’s (BA.N) new Starliner capsule and its inaugural two-member NASA crew neared final approach to the International Space Station for docking on Thursday, a key test in proving the vessel’s flight-worthiness and sharpening Boeing’s competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The spacecraft was proceeding to its planned rendezvous despite an earlier loss of some of its guidance thrusters due to a helium propulsion leak, which NASA and Boeing said should not compromise the mission.
Reuters: SpaceX’s Starship survives return to Earth, achieves landing test on fourth try
SpaceX’s Starship rocket survived a fiery, hypersonic return from space and achieved a breakthrough landing demonstration in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, completing a full test mission around the globe on the rocket’s fourth try.
Scripting News (Dave Winer): Thursday, June 6, 2024
I used the ChatGPT “upload an image” feature today while debugging some software. I could show it what wasn’t working with a screen shot. Amazingly it understood and made the connection to the software we were working on, and suggested a modification that made it work properly. This was an important missing bit of functionality, previously you had to explain in words what wasn’t working visually. That worked too, but was cumbersome. Much easier to just show it was wrong. And the UI couldn’t be simpler. Take the screen shot at paste it into the box where you normally type. It starts analyzing before you press Enter.
It’s a new world.
pv magazine: IEA urges countries to accelerate renewables deployment
A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) suggests that the world could miss out on a target of 11,000 GW of global renewables capacity by the end of the decade, as agreed at COP28. It also predicts that solar will become the world’s largest source of installed renewable capacity, surpassing hydropower.
NYT: The Rise and Fall of BNN Breaking, an AI-Generated News Outlet
BNN Breaking had millions of readers, an international team of journalists and a publishing deal with Microsoft. But it was full of error-ridden content.
The news was featured on MSN.com: “Prominent Irish broadcaster faces trial over alleged sexual misconduct.” At the top of the story was a photo of Dave Fanning.
But Mr. Fanning, an Irish D.J. and talk-show host famed for his discovery of the rock band U2, was not the broadcaster in question.
MacRumors: Apple to Launch Standalone ‘Passwords’ App in iOS 18 and macOS 15
Apple plans to introduce a new Passwords app in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The Passwords app, which will serve as an alternative to third-party apps like 1Password and LastPass, will provide a simpler way for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to access their stored login information.
NYT: Boeing’s Starliner Overcomes Malfunctioning Thrusters to Dock at Space Station
There were glitches with its propulsion system, but Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and the two NASA astronauts it carried successfully docked at the International Space Station on Thursday afternoon.
The docking, at 1:34 p.m. Eastern time, was more than an hour later than planned, after the troubleshooting of several malfunctioning thrusters.
NYT: Have Wine for Breakfast, Put On a 51-Pound Suit and Get to the Battlefield
They had been recruited for a study to determine if the Dendra panoply, a suit of armor from 3,500 years ago considered to be one of the oldest known from the Bronze Age in Europe, could be worn in battle. Or if it was only ceremonial, as some scholars have previously argued.
The soldiers wore a replica of the suit, and scientists tracked their blood-glucose levels, heart rates and other physiological measures, finding that the men’s bodies could handle the strain of the armor, according to a paper published in the journal PLOS One on May 22.
NYT: This Was Village Life in Britain 3,000 Years Ago
Three millenniums ago, a small, prosperous farming community briefly flourished in the freshwater marshes of eastern England. The inhabitants lived in a clutch of thatched roundhouses built on wooden stilts above a channel of the River Nene, which empties into the North Sea. They wore clothes of fine flax linen, with pleats and tasseled hems; bartered for glass and amber beads imported from places as far-flung as present-day Iran; drank from delicate clay poppyhead cups; dined on leg of boar and honey-glazed venison, and fed table scraps to their dogs.
Within a year of its construction, this prehistoric idyll met a dramatic end. A catastrophic fire tore through the compound; the buildings collapsed and the villagers fled, abandoning their garments, tools and weapons. Everything, including the porridge left in cooking pots, crashed through the burning wicker floors into the thick, sticky reed beds below and stayed there. Eventually, the objects sank, hidden and entombed, in more than six feet of oozing peat and silt. The river gradually moved course away from the encampment, but the debris remained intact for nearly 3,000 years, preserving a record of daily life at the end of Britain’s Bronze Age, from 2500 B.C. to 800 B.C.
@jon@wears.tigerpajamas.com (Mastodon):
Nothing makes me feel more neurodivergent than downloading literally any mobile game and not being able to figure out how anyone could even bother wanting to learn how to play it.
Gizmodo: Wallace & Gromit’s New Movie Will Bring Back the Greatest Villain In Animation History
In Vengeance Most Fowl, somehow, Feathers McGraw returns.
via Spencer Greenhalgh (@spgreenhalgh)
NPR: Bans on ranked choice voting are now law in many GOP states
Five states have banned ranked choice voting in the last two months, bringing the total number of Republican-leaning states now prohibiting the voting method to 10.
Missouri could soon join them.
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If Missourians approve the ranked choice voting ban, the state will join Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Kentucky in barring the voting system this year. Alaska, where voters approved ranked choice voting in 2020, could see the practice repealed.
Meanwhile in other states, including Nevada and Oregon, voters will decide whether to adopt ranked choice voting later this year.
via Spencer Greenhalgh (@spgreenhalgh)
NYT: This Florida Neighborhood Is Always Bracing for the Next Flood
Mr. Batdorf, a real estate broker, said people were still buying in the neighborhood, even if only to demolish and rebuild. He likened the situation to when Tropical Storm Josephine flooded Shore Acres in 1996. Mr. Batdorf walked through knee-deep water back then to make sure a house his clients wanted had not flooded. The flooding did not detract the buyers.
“I wrote the contract that day, in the water,” he said. “People love living here. It’s the convenience of where it is. It’s paradise.”
Fast Company: What is the Cara app, and why are artists deleting Instagram for it?
In the last few months, Meta started to sneakily train its generative AI tool on Instagram posts. Now, some artists are jumping ship to a lesser-known portfolio app, Cara, to protect their work from AI data scrapers.
Saule Technologies: Inkjet-Printed Perovskite Solar Cells
Perovskite PV is the newest and the most exciting solar technology.
It broadens possible applications of traditional photovoltaics, and it can transform the products we use every day.
Printable broad spectrum solar cells!
Last Updated: 06.Jun.2024 22:07 EDT
