BBC, Absolutely Fabulous
Hey, good morning!
Monday's back. But before dealing with that, read about how Facebook may be planning its own TV-like shows, how Android Pay might use your your face, and NASA's plans of where to go next in the Solar System.
'Guardians of the Galaxy' team explains why it used Red's 8K camera
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the first movie shot with Red's 8K Weapon camera, but why? The camera maker has posted a behind-the-scenes look at the movie that, to no one's surprise, talks a lot about why the Vol. 2 team shot with such relatively exotic gear. As director of photography Henry Braham summarizes: the Weapon is a "large format" camera that's simultaneously "tiny." That let the crew shoot very detailed imagery regardless of the shot -- important for a CG-heavy movie, since it maintains a consistently sharp look. It meant they could use the same cameras for handheld close-ups or unusual rigs, such as a spider rig that flies along a wire.
NASA is reviewing candidates for its next Solar System mission
The Space Agency might be focusing on Mars recently, but it hasn't forgotten the rest of the Solar System. NASA has begun reviewing the 12 proposals it received for the New Frontiers program, the same one that gave rise to New Horizons, Juno and other notable unmanned missions. All the proposals will go through scientific and technical probing with the next seven months, with one or a few moving on to the next phase of the selection process. It will choose the best mission to develop in 2019 and will spend up to $1 billion to make it a reality.
Tesla collects videos from cars to improve its self-driving tech
Tesla has pushed an Autopilot update that, in addition to bringing newer vehicles up to snuff , includes a new data policy that mentions collecting "short video clips" from external cameras in the name of autonomous driving upgrades. The footage will help Tesla's systems learn how to recognize lanes, signs and other visual cues that cars need to get around. The Autopilot update itself is big news, at least if you own a recent (October 2016 or later) Model S or Model X. In many ways, these newer vehicles finally have Autopilot limits on par with earlier cars.
The Nintendo PlayStation can finally play CD games
Ah, the fabled Nintendo PlayStation: a very cool prototype of what might have been, but with a CD drive that couldn't actually play games. Until now.Professional tinkerer Ben Heckendorn (aka Ben Heck) has managed to get the CD drive working, including games. The solution, as he explains, involved replacing some "questionable" capacitors and "jiggling some things around" -- he was caught off-guard when things started working.
But wait, there's more...
- Self-repairing roads could also charge your electric car
- The TV industry just edged closer to a giant merger
- Google explains how it's preventing future email phishing scams
- San Francisco train service plans to run solely on clean energy