This new speaker button in Google Maps will verbally speak the location’s name and address.
Traveling the world but don’t speak the local language? Google Maps should be a bit more useful soon, thanks to some new integration with Google Translate.
Typically if you’re in a foreign-language country, Google Maps will show the English place-name followed by the name in the local language below it. Sometime this month, Google Maps will get a new speaker button next to the local place-name, which will fire up Google Translate’s text-to-speech engine. Until now, if you needed to communicate with a driver or ask for directions, you might have handed over your smartphone and let them read the screen. Now, though, you’ll be able to have your phone shout out the pronunciation in a synthesized Google Translate voice, or you can practice pronouncing the name yourself beforehand.
This all happens in a new pop-up window, which lets your phone speak the place-name or address in the local language.There’s also a handy “get more translations” button at the bottom, which will kick you out to the full Google Translate app. The language selection is all based on the locale chosen in your system settings, which is then compared to the local language of the place you’re looking up.
Google says the feature will “be rolling out this month on Android and iOS with support for 50 languages and more on the way.”
Teams from NASA, Boeing, and the White Sands Missile Range rehearse landing and crew extraction from Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.
On Thursday, NASA’s inspector general released a report on the space agency’s commercial crew program, which seeks to pay Boeing and SpaceX to develop vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.
Although the report cites the usual technical issues that the companies are having with the development of their respective Starliner and Dragon spacecraft, far more illuminating is its discussion of costs. Notably, the report publishes estimated seat prices for the first time, and it also delves into the extent that Boeing has gone to extract more money from NASA above and beyond its fixed-price award.
Boeing’s per-seat price already seemed like it would cost more than SpaceX. The company has received a total of $4.82 billion from NASA over the lifetime of the commercial crew program, compared to $3.14 billion for SpaceX. However, for the first time the government has published a per-seat price: $90 million for Starliner and $55 million for Dragon. Each capsule is expected to carry four astronauts to the space station during a nominal mission.
Comparison of Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles.
NASA Inspector General
What is notable about Boeing’s price is that it is also higher than what NASA has paid the Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, for Soyuz spacecraft seats to fly US and partner-nation astronauts to the space station. Overall, NASA paid Russia an average cost per seat of $55.4 million for the 70 completed and planned missions from 2006 through 2020. Since 2017, NASA has paid an average of $79.7 million.
Beyond these seat prices, Inspector General Paul Martin’s report also notes that Boeing received additional funding from NASA, above and beyond its fixed-price award.
“Not consistent”
“We found that NASA agreed to pay an additional $287.2 million above Boeing’s fixed prices to mitigate a perceived 18-month gap in ISS flights anticipated in 2019 and to ensure the contractor continued as a second commercial crew provider, without offering similar opportunities to SpaceX,” the report states.
According to Martin, who had extensive access to NASA officials in the preparation of the report, Boeing in 2016 proposed pricing for its third through sixth crewed missions using the “single 2016 mission price,” which was substantially higher than NASA and Boeing had originally agreed upon. In response to this, NASA’s Office of Procurement determined this was “not consistent with the terms of the contract and did not match the contract’s fixed-price table.”
However, Boeing continued to press NASA for additional funding. After “prolonged negotiations,” according to Martin, Boeing offered some benefits to NASA, such as reduced lead times before the missions and a variable launch cadence. NASA then agreed to pay the additional $287.2 million for these four missions, which are likely to fly in the early 2020s.
Perhaps the most striking rationale for approving the additional funds was that Boeing may have discussed backing out of the commercial crew program (CCP). Martin writes, “According to several NASA officials, a significant consideration for paying Boeing such a premium was to ensure the contractor continued as a second crew transportation provider. CCP officials cited NASA’s guidance to maintain two US commercial crew providers to ensure redundancy in crew transportation as part of the rationale for approving the purchase of all four missions at higher prices.”
A spokesman for Boeing, Josh Barrett, denied that Boeing had threatened to end its commercial crew participation. ”Boeing has made significant investments in the commercial crew program, and we are fully committed to flying the CST-100 Starliner and keeping the International Space Station fully crewed and operational,” he told Ars.
The report notes that as NASA was agreeing to pay Boeing extra for these benefits, a similar deal was not offered to SpaceX. “In contrast, SpaceX was not notified of this change in requirements and was not provided an opportunity to propose similar capabilities that could have resulted in less cost or broader mission flexibilities,” Martin writes.
This controller attachment was shown in Microsoft’s xCloud promo video, and Bluetooth wireless controller support is also planned.
At Microsoft’s annual X0 fan conference in London on Thursday, Microsoft confirmed a huge piece of news for its game-streaming platform, Project xCloud. The service will launch with full compatibility for all Xbox software in “2020,” meaning that it will work with “all games you own, or games you purchase in the future,” according to xCloud reps.
What’s more, Xbox may have just thrown the gauntlet down in the game-streaming price wars by announcing a clear tie between the Project xCloud streaming service and the paid Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
“Next year, we will bring game streaming to Xbox Game Pass, so that you are free to discover and play anywhere and everywhere,” xCloud General Manager Catherine Gluckstein told the X019 crowd on Thursday.
Xbox representatives did not directly answer Ars’ questions about pricing information—particularly whether this “free to discover and play” statement means Xbox Game Pass will come with unfettered streaming access to its 100+ game library at no additional charge. Instead, they responded to our questions with the following statement: “We want to offer choice in how players stream games from the cloud. We’ll have more details to share at a later date.”
If Game Pass winds up including free game streaming as an option, that would put Xbox’s $10/month service in an entirely different tier of value and convenience than Google Stadia. Google’s upcoming service, set to launch November 19 in an early Founders Edition bundle, currently requires its users to pay full retail price for each of its titles, which can then be streamed to compatible devices. At launch, this will be limited to compatible Chromecast Ultra devices, though options will broaden to mobile devices, Chrome Web browsers, and more.
Stadia users can also pay $10/mo for a “Stadia Pro” tier, which adds one free game a month and upgrades its streaming signal to 4K resolution. Next year, Google will roll out a “Stadia Base” tier, which will let users buy and stream games at 1080p resolution without paying an additional monthly fee.
Today’s X019 announcement also included news that Project xCloud will arrive on Windows 10 PCs in 2020, on top of its current beta-test availability on Android devices. Next year will also see xCloud reach more regions for both its testing phase (which is currently live in the United States, Korea, and the UK for invited beta users) and its live, final version. That’s good news for hopeful streaming players in Canada, India, Japan and Western Europe. And controller compatibility with xCloud will be broader by 2020, as well, including discrete support for Sony’s DualShock 4 controller via a Bluetooth connection.
Current beta testers, meanwhile, just got a new slew of games to test today, jumping from the initial test’s four-strong selection to over 50 games. It’s a meaty library, too, full of some particularly recent games—and while it’s not a mirror of the Xbox Game Pass library, it certainly stands in stark contrast to the 12 games available for early Stadia users starting next week. The full xCloud testing list is below, with previously available games marked with asterisks.
Navigation apps can be helpful for getting around an unfamiliar country… up until you need to ask someone for directions and can’t say a place name. Google thinks it can help. It’s rolling out an update to Google Maps on Android and iOS that can speak place names in the local language. You can point a driver to a Japanese cultural center or a Spanish tapas bar without having to point frantically at the screen. And if you do need more than that translation to get around, there’s a direct link to Google Translate if you have it installed.
The translation features should reach your device sometime in November. It won’t be useful for every language at first — there will be ‘just’ 50 to start. More are on the way, though. So long as it does fit the bill, you’ll hopefully spend less time trying to share your destinations with locals and more time actually visiting them.
Garmin Avionics has developed an Autoland system to get a General Aviation plane back on the ground if its pilot becomes incapacitated.
Garmin/Piper
It’s only currently available in the Piper M600 (previous photo) and the Cirrus Vision, pictured here.
Garmin/Cirrus
If you’re in a Piper M600, you’ll need this button.
Garmin/Piper
For reference, this is a Piper M600.
Garmin/Piper
Don’t touch anything.
Garmin/Piper
The system keeps track of any suitable runways you might have flown past on your way.
Garmin/Piper
If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve probably heard stories of passengers who successfully landed small planes after their pilots fell ill or died. It happened in Australia just a few months ago (Aug. 31) when a student on his first flight lesson in Perth was forced to land a Cessna 150 after his instructor lost consciousness.
The student had never landed anything previously, but it worked. However, it usually doesn’t, and the consequences are disastrous. That’s why electronics/avionics maker Garmin is launching Autoland, an emergency autopilot system that can autonomously land a private aircraft and bring it to a stop on the runway.
Push the red button
Commercial airliners have long had auto-landing systems as well as the ability to fall back on co-pilots if the pilot-in-command becomes incapacitated. Until recently, single-pilot certified general aviation (GA) airplanes haven’t had autonomous landing capability. To be clear, they still don’t. Garmin’s Autoland system is not yet FAA certified, though the company expects certification “soon.”
Autoland is a new feature of Garmin’s G3000 integrated flight deck, which already comes with 3-axis autopilot, auto-throttles, and automatic stability and descent capabilities. It will debut on two single-engine airplanes: Piper’s M600 SLS turboprop and Cirrus Aircraft’s Vision Jet. Priced at $2.9 million and $2.3 million, respectively, they admittedly stretch the definition of general aviation aircraft, but each is largely owner-flown.
If you’re aboard one, and the owner-pilot succumbs to something, here’s what happens:
Upon recognizing the pilot is in distress, a passenger can press the Autoland button. In the Cirrus it’s a big red button on the ceiling between the pilot’s seats and at top-center on the M600 instrument panel. The G3000 also monitors pilot activity/inactivity and cabin pressure and can automatically engage Autoland or Emergency Descent Mode if no activity is detected. (Recall the Payne Stewart hypoxia-induced Lear 35 crash.)
The system audibly announces, “Emergency Autoland Activating.” The airplane then declares an emergency with air traffic control via automated voice radio messages and sets the transponder to squawk 7700 (mayday signal).
Simultaneously, Autoland analyzes terrain, weather, and nearby airports to determine the optimal airport for landing given the specific aircraft’s available fuel and performance characteristics, winds, runway length, and a host of other factors. As the airplane descends, Autoland controls speed, altitude and flight path and manages throttles, flaps, cabin pressurization, and more.
Air traffic controllers are informed of the system’s landing destination choice and clear traffic as they would with a human-flown emergency. On final approach, Autoland lowers the gear, flares the airplane, and brings it to a stop with automatic braking. Audible instructions for exiting the airplane then play.
Throughout the evolution, passengers can be in voice contact with ATC, getting reassurance. And if the pilot comes to, they can override Autoland, turning everything off with another press of that button.
Easy to imagine, hard to do
“A lot of this was us trying to figure out what would make sense in this class of aircraft,” says Garmin’s aviation systems team leader, Ben Patel.
Work on the system accelerated four years ago as technology and the business case came together. Garmin’s own development of its autopilot, auto-throttles, and other automated systems formed the building blocks for Autoland.
“These systems that we’re using to enable it are things that have been in the field for years,” Autoland Program Manager Bailey Scheel adds.
Autoland not only employs a sophisticated autopilot, it leverages special routing and destination-selection algorithms. The system is aware of all airports bypassed on a flight as well as those immediately proximate. It actually scores airports for optimal safe landing based on dynamic physical, environmental, and weighted OEM performance parameters.
Senior Software Engineer Eric Tran adds that Autoland routing borrows from Garmin’s automotive autonomy side. “It can choose the best, safest airport for autonomous landing faster than any human pilot.”
Garmin says that about 70% of airports in the US are suitable Autoland destinations. They simply need a GPS approach with vertical guidance.
On the other hand, Autoland requires an airplane with the latest version of the G3000 flight deck, with auto-throttles, auto-braking, radar altimeter, and more. The population of GA aircraft eligible is very small.
As of this writing, Piper has built about 10 Autoland-enabled M600 SLS. Cirrus has two Autoland-equipped Vision Jets. Fitting the system to your private piston-single or twin could be possible with considerable work but also prohibitively expensive. (Garmin declines to price Autoland.)
That’s why Autoland will roll out exclusively on new aircraft for some time to come. Eventually Garmin will broaden the market. In the process, lives will be saved.
of launching new services only to shut them down a few months or years later. And with the launch of Stadia imminent, one launch game developer has acknowledged the prevalence of concerns about that history among her fellow developers while also downplaying their seriousness in light of Stadia’s potential.
“The biggest complaint most developers have with Stadia is the fear is Google is just going to cancel it,” Gwen Frey, developer of Stadia launch puzzle gameKine,told GamesIndustry.biz in recently published comments. “Nobody ever says, ‘Oh, it’s not going to work.’ or ‘Streaming isn’t the future.’ Everyone accepts that streaming is pretty much inevitable. The biggest concern with Stadia is that it might not exist.”
“Working in tech, you have to be willing to make bold moves and try things that could fail,” Frey continued. “And yeah, Google’s canceled a lot of projects. But I also have a Pixel in my pocket, I’m using Google Maps to get around, I only got here because my Google Calendar told me to get here by giving me a prompt in Gmail. It’s not like Google cancels every fucking thing they make.”
Google itself has made similar arguments in the past. Stadia Director of Product Andrey Doronichev
that Google’s commitment to Stadia is comparable to services like Gmail, Docs, Music, Movies, and Photos. “Nothing in life is certain, but we’re committed to making Stadia a success… Of course, it’s OK to doubt my words. There’s nothing I can say now to make you believe if you don’t. But what we can do is to launch the service and continue investing in it for years to come.”
Worries over Stadia’s continued existence aren’t exactly academic for potential consumers, though, since Google is primarily asking players to pay full price for Stadia games that only exist on Google’s own servers. Anyone who similarly bought games for streaming service OnLive years ago knows what can come of that kind of investment if and when the service goes under.
Slow start, grand potential
Elsewhere in the interview, Frey said she sees Google’s Stadia launch strategy as a limited one that “is pushing Stadia in a direction to compete with consoles.” That means ports of console-style games that don’t take full advantage of the power of Stadia’s cloud data centers, as Google says future Stadia exclusives may do.
It also means a focus on “territories where there are a lot of consoles and where the Internet is very good, so in the short-term I think it won’t reach its potential,” Frey said. “I don’t even think they want to have a super-strong launch. I get the sense that they want to scale slowly and see where this goes.”
In the longer term, though, Frey said she has some undisclosed ideas about how to use Stadia’s cloud power for unique experiences in the future. And she said she’s excited about the impact cloud gaming could have once high-speed mobile Internet access really goes worldwide.
“I’m not sure what implications this has in a place like Africa, where everything’s mobile,” she said. “When 6G drops, is this going to suddenly be a big deal? What does this mean for places where everyone goes to internet cafes, like in Brazil? Who knows?”
Netflix recently broke for a number of users, and the error message the company provided wasn’t entirely clear about why. Gizmodo spoke with the company about the incident, and Netflix offered more details about why this is happening.
Last week, multipleoutlets reported that select Roku devices, as well as older Samsung or Vizio TVs, would soon lose support for Netflix beginning in December. In a note on its support page, Netflix said that affected users would begin seeing error messages about the changes. In a note—one that seems rather vague considering a total disappearance of its service from user devices—the company blamed unspecified “technical limitations.”
“We’ve notified all impacted members with more information about alternative devices we support so they can keep enjoying Netflix uninterrupted,” a Netflix spokesperson told Gizmodo by email. The spokesperson added the change would affect a “small number” of older devices. But that doesn’t really scratch the surface of why this is happening, so what gives?
The Netflix spokesperson told Gizmodo the company is constantly improving upon its product, but with respect to Roku devices in particular, the issue boils down to older devices running Windows Media DRM. Since 2010, however, Netflix has been using Microsoft PlayReady. The spokesperson said that, starting December 2, older devices that aren’t able to upgrade to PlayReady won’t be able to use the service.
A Roku spokesperson told Gizmodo that many of the affected devices are eight- to ten-years-old and noted that old hardware can’t keep up with new software forever. According to the company, Roku devices that will no longer support Netflix include: Roku SD (N1050), Roku HD-XR (N1101), Roku HD (N1100, 2000C), and Roku XD (2050X, 2050N, 2100X, 2100N). The spokesperson said the company has been communicating with its customers directly both by email as well as on-device about the change.
When reached for comment by email, Samsung also cited “technical limitations.” It said that the lack of Netflix support “will impact select 2010 and 2011 Samsung Smart TV models that were sold in the U.S. and Canada.”
Vizio, meanwhile, said that its impacted devices were sold around 2012 to 2014 and include some of its Smart TVs with VIZIO Internet Apps (V.I.A.). The company added that Netflix “continues to work smoothly on other VIZIO Smart TVs with VIZIO Internet Apps Plus (V.I.A. Plus) and SmartCast TVs/Displays. There are still over 70 apps available to consumers with V.I.A. devices.”
Watching your loved-to-death gadgets eventually go the way Dodo is rough. But hey, the good thing about Netflix is that it can be streamed just about anywhere. And its tsunami of so-so content will be waiting when you return.
