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Iconic game designer Jeff Minter is back with another modern take on a long-forgotten Atari title. Minter has turned his psychedelic eye toward the 1984 arcade cabinet I, Robot. His version ups the visuals and takes serious liberties with the original design, adopting techno music and some new game modes. The original I, Robot was a flop, despite being made by Dave Theurer, the guy behind Missile Command and Tempest. Maybe it was just ahead of its time. After all, it was the very first commercial video game to use real-time, flat-shaded 3D polygon graphics. The game came out a full eight years before Segas Virtua Racing and more than a decade before the PlayStation and N64 brought 3D gaming into the mainstream. The original title had players control a robot as it jumped around mazes to flip the color of tiles and shoot enemies. There was also a giant eyeball that had to be avoided at all costs. Minters version keeps the core gameplay mechanic, but increases the speed and incorporates new gameplay elements. For instance, there are new tube shooter levels and an exploration mode called Ungame. It looks pretty nifty. If the name Jeff Minter seems vaguely familiar, hes the person who made Tempest 2000 and its various sequels. More recently, he remade an unreleased Atari prototype called Akka Arrh that originally dates back to 1982. He also provided the visuals for a Nine Inch Nails video. Minters version of I, Robot will be released this spring on pretty much every platform, including Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The design team is also working on a port for PlayStation VR2.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/acclaimed-designer-jeff-minter-is-back-with-a-remake-of-the-80s-arcade-curio-i-robot-194037105.html?src=rss
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MyFitnessPal, a popular, free food logging app, is getting into AI, specifically letting AI plan your meals for you. Following an acquisition of a startup called Intent, MyFitnessPal is adding an AI-generated meal planning feature for subscribers. The meal plans the updated MyFitnessPal app will be able to create take into account subscribers' "goals, preferences, dietary habits, and routines," according to MyFitnessPal, via information the app already has on you, and what looks like a survey. The feature will also be part of an end-to-end experience. Any plan the app creates can be automatically translated into a grocery list for the next time you're at the store, or an order to a grocery delivery service if you'd prefer to do as little as possible. MyFitnessPal Given the sheer number of recipe and diet videos you can stumble upon across social media, trying to simplify the process of planning what you're going to eat makes sense. Using AI to do it does seem like it could have some unintended consequences, though. Knowing AI's ability to hallucinate, even if MyFitnessPal isn't generating recipes from scratch, it still feels like you could end up with some oddball meal combinations or incorrect grocery lists. The only way to know for sure is to try the AI meal planner for yourself, and if you're interested, you can already sign-up for a waitlist so you're able to try it out as soon as its available. MyFitnessPal says meal planning will officially launch in the spring in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and require joining a new $99.99 annual subscription tier called "Premium+" to use.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/myfitnesspal-is-going-to-let-ai-play-your-nutrionist-191239496.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
We're in the tail end of winter here, but it's snowing as I write this. Not a lot, but just enough to be a potential frustration to the move I have planned for later this week. Basically, winter weather sucks, and one of the worst things about it is how unpredictable it can be. The Weather Company, owners and developers of the Weather Channel app (but not the TV station) know this, and have just released a feature to try and make planning for storms a little easier. It's called probabilistic snowfall, and it aims to give you greater insight into just how severe or impactful a storm might be. You'll still see the standard "50 percent chance of snowfall" in your forecasts, but in the 72 hours leading up to snow, you'll also see the percent change for specific snowfall amounts. For example, you'll see that there's an 80 percent chance of snow overall, but you'll also see bars detailing how likely more specific snowfall amounts are. In this screenshot from the app, you can see that five to eight inches is the most likely outcome, followed by eight to 12 inches enough snow that you might want to change your plans to deal with it. According to Rachel Chukura, head of product at The Weather Company, that was precisely the vision behind the feature. "The idea is that users can see the different probabilities and know there could be variations, she said. "That's important because of all the decisions we make in terms of what weather we think is coming. What time do you need to leave for your commute, will there be a school delay, and so on." And while the company is starting with snowfall forecasts, they also hope to bring it to more forecasting tools over time. I've been using the feature for about a week, just in time to see it pop up for the small storm we had in Philadelphia last night. I obviously can't say how accurate it is, as I'm not out there measuring snowfall with a ruler. But the few inches we got overnight were in line with the probabilistic forecast, and it was helpful leading up to the storm to know I likely didn't have to worry about the weather truly being an inconvenience. The feature is part of the Weather Channel app's premium subscription, which costs $30 per year. Besides probabilistic snowfall, that also removes ads, shows longer-term forecasts on the radar, adds a 30-mile lightning strike map and provides more detailed 15-minute weather breakdowns. While most people out there will stick with the default weather app on their phones, or just use the free version of the Weather Channel or other similar apps, there's definitely something to be said for greater insight into how likely you are to get crushed by a snowstorm.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-weather-channel-app-can-show-how-likely-you-are-to-get-specific-snowfall-amounts-165900316.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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