 A new patent from Microsoft sheds light on improvements for the audio system for devices emulating an augmented reality. First spotted by us, the patent simply titled ‘Audio augmented reality system’ was published by USPTO on March 19, 2019, and filed by Microsoft in 2018. In the patent application, techniques to enhance the performance of audio augmented reality systems have been described. “Techniques for online information search and retrieval for a query including a digital audio waveform. In an aspect, an audio waveform is received and digitized by at least one of a plurality of audio input devices. The digitized audio waveforms are transmitted to a central processing unit, which formulates and submits a query to an online engine,” Microsoft explains. “The formulated query may include at least one digital audio waveform. The online engine retrieves one or more online results relevant to the formulated query. The online results may include one or more relevant visual results, and/or one or more relevant audio results. The retrieved results are served in real-time back to a user, via a device having audio output capability, and/or a device having visual data output capability,” the company adds. The foldable devices are in vogue this year. Companies like Samsung and Huawei have recently unveiled their foldable display mobile devices. Microsoft is also said to be working on its own foldable device and a new version of Windows optimized for such form factors. Follow along on OUR FORUM.  Third-party advertising technology (ad tech) trackers from 112 companies were found on 89% of official government websites of EU member states by Cookiebot, a cookie, and online tracking consent solution, after scanning 184,683 pages. As discovered by Cookiebot, 25 out of 28 of the EU official government websites it checked came with ad tech trackers, with the German, Spanish, and Dutch governmental websites being the only three on which commercial trackers were not detected. EU government websites do not use advertising revenue for funding and are the ones that should provide an example to all other organizations and companies with an online presence on how GDPR's regulations should be upheld. Despite this, ad tech trackers have found their way in, infiltrating with the help of third-party plugins used to provide various features "such as video players, social sharing widgets, web analytics, galleries, and comments sections." Another category of websites that should not contain any type of ad tech tracker is public health service websites which process sensitive information about their visitors' health condition, a "special category data that is carefully protected under Article 9 of the GDPR." In spite of this, on 52% of them, Cookiebot was able to detect ad trackers, with 73% of the Irish health service featuring trackers, while the one from Germany was on the other end of the spectrum with 33% of all their pages coming trackers.Get the bigger picture by visiting OUR FORUM.  In a statement from EA announced that The Sims 4 will no longer be supported on non-Metal Mac OS machines or PC 32-bit operating systems from June 2019 onward. The withdrawal of support on Mac OS systems isn’t without reason. Apple is planning on phasing out support for their current graphics processing technology, OpenGL, and switching over to a new system known as Metal. EA have made the decision to upgrade The Sims 4 to work with Metal instead, thus dropping support for OpenGL. Their reasoning for withdrawing support for 32-bit operating systems is a little less clear, with EA simply stating that in order to ‘continue growing, improving, and optimizing’ the game, they’ve made the decision to retire 32-bit support. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s the end of The Sims 4 for Sims players on those systems. For Mac OS users who can’t upgrade to an OS that supports Metal or for PC players who can’t update to a 64-bit OS, never fear! EA have an alternative in the form of The Sims 4: Legacy Edition. The Sims 4 Legacy Editon is essentially what it says on the tin. It’s a version of The Sims 4 that will work with non-Metal Mac OS systems and 32-bit OS PCs. Unlike the original game, it will not be updated after its release. The Legacy Edition should be available in June 2019, around the same time as the planned drop in support. It will only be available for existing owners of the game and will not be available to new players.We have 2 statements from EA and how you can continue playing posted on OUR FORUM. |
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