‘Pokemon Go’ player shot to death at San Francisco park

SAN FRANCISCO — A 20-year-old man was shot to death while playing “Pokemon Go” at a tourist attraction along San Francisco’s waterfront, authorities and a family friend said.

An unknown assailant shot Calvin Riley on Saturday night at Aquatic Park near Ghiradelli Square, the U.S. Park Police said Sunday. A family friend called it a random attack.

Riley was playing the hit mobile game with a friend when someone shot him from behind and took off, John Kirby told KGO-TV.

“From what we know, there was no confrontation,” Kirby said. “There was nothing said back and forth. It was just senseless, just came up and shot in the back and ran away for nothing.”

Kirby said Riley and his friend had noticed someone watching them from the top of a hill that overlooks the park, but it was dark and they were mostly looking at their cellphones.

National Park Service spokesman Lynn Cullivan said investigators believe there are witnesses to the attack because it happened in the bustling Fisherman’s Wharf area. They are seeking tips.

Sgt. Robert Jansing, a detective with the U.S. Park Police, said the gunman did not take any of Riley’s belongings or try to rob him.

Riley graduated from high school in San Mateo and pitched for the baseball team at San Joaquin Delta College.

“It’s a huge loss to everyone,” the school’s head coach, Reed Peters, told KGO-TV. “He was a great kid, a great competitor.”

It’s unclear whether the attack had anything to do with “Pokemon Go,” which has become a national sensation this summer as legions of fans visit real-world landmarks in a hunt for digital creatures.

But the game’s popularity has created unintended consequences in everyday life.

Property owners complain of players trespassing or damaging their grounds, and scores of players have been injured or robbed as they stare at their phones and try to track cartoon monsters.

Law enforcement officials have warned about the game’s possible dangers, saying players can become engrossed in it and tune out their surroundings.

source: technology.inquirer.net

iPad Pro is bigger, with keyboard and stylus

SAN FRANCISCO -  Apple Inc announced a bigger iPad with a new keyboard and stylus aimed at business customers.

Chief Executive Tim Cook promised a day of "monster" news on Wednesday, but shares of the company remained nearly flat as executives showed off the iPad, which will be priced starting at $799.

Cook began by talking up the Apple Watch, saying customer satisfaction for the new product was 97 percent. Apple is working with French luxury goods maker Hermes on a new watch collection, and Facebook Messenger is coming to the device, he added.

He then rolled out the "iPad Pro" with a 12.9 inch screen and said it had performance similar to a desktop computer. Apple showed off a "smart" keyboard and a stylus called "Pencil".

Apple said it had partnered with Cisco Systems Inc and IBM to help power the iPad pro, which it said is up to 1.8 times faster and has a 10-hour battery life. Many people on Twitter seemed unimpressed by the new iPad and lamented its large size, however.

Shares of Apple were up less than 1 percent at $112.68.

Cook promised "monster announcements" at the event, which is also expected to feature an updated version of its Apple TV device and of its iPhones, which drove nearly two-thirds of the company's $49.6 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter.

Apple is widely expected to keep the size of the phones the same but upgrade it with an improved camera and Force Touch, a display technology that responds differently depending on how hard users press their screens.

A year after Apple rolled out iPhones with larger screens, touching off a frenzy of sales that saw revenue in the most recent quarter increase 32.5 percent from the same quarter a year ago, the latest upgrades may leave some investors and consumers underwhelmed.

"It's getting harder and harder for Apple to compete against itself," said analyst Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research. Apple shares are up more than 14 percent over the last year, although they are down nearly 12 percent in the last three months.

Fortunately for Apple, most consumers buy smartphones under a two-year upgrade cycle, meaning the company will still likely scoop up a lot of sales, said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.

"The key point of reference is not how the new phone compares to the iPhone 6, it's how it compares to the iPhone 5s," he said.

Expectations have been rising for an revamped Apple TV, a set-top box that has seen few significant updates since its release in 2007. Although Apple has yet to hammer out deals for a long-awaited television service, analysts say the company is poised to overhaul the hockey-puck-sized device.

The device is expected to gain an App Store and an interface that allows users to make requests through the Siri digital assistant and search for specific programs and movies across apps. The company may also discuss the device's role as a hub for gaming.

"It's a big day for the big screen!" Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue tweeted before the event.

Nearly 20 percent of U.S. broadband households own at least one streaming media player, and Apple has a long way to go in the market, according to data from research firm Parks Associates.

Roku is the leader in streaming media boxes, accounting for 34 percent of all streaming devices sold in the United States in 2014, according to data from research firm Parks Associates. Google Inc's Chromecast and Amazon.com Inc's Fire TV were next. The Apple TV box came in fourth.

"It's important that (Apple) come out and really get up to date and potentially eclipse some of the other living room devices out there," Moorhead said.  — Reuters

Star Trek game developers to build digital memorial for Leonard Nimoy

An in-game memorial in the Star Trek Online game could be the gaming community's most fitting tribute yet to the late Leonard Nimoy, who played the iconic Spock in the original series.

Star Trek Online executive producer Steve Ricossa, in a post on the STO forums,  hinted at the in-game memorial could come as early as March 5.

"I want to once again express my heartfelt condolences to the friends, family, and fans of Leonard Nimoy. Everyone at Cryptic Studios was saddened to hear of his passing and we want to make sure we never forget the cultural impact of the man or the character he played. To that end, the Star Trek Online team will implement a standing in-game memorial to Spock and Leonard Nimoy this Thursday March 5th with our regular weekly maintenance," he said.

"In this way, we hope to keep his memory as alive in our game as he is in all of our hearts," he added, signing off with LLAP - Live Long and Prosper, Spock's salute.

Nimoy died over the weekend at age 83.

A separate article on Polygon.com also noted at least 1,000 STO players spontaneously traveled to the in-game Vulcan to pay their respects.

"Though the figure isn't as large as some ceremonies seen in other MMOs, Star Trek Online's population is comparatively a lot smaller," it said.

It noted that as of January, the game had 2.5 million unique accounts, and 3.8 million characters played by them.

Polygon also noted Nimoy voiced Spock in STO and provided narration for the MMO. —Joel Locsin/JST, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Even kids can make their own 'Flappy Bird' game in 15 minutes with this simple tool

What better way to celebrate a flappy, er, happy first birthday than teaching children to make their own "Flappy Bird" game?

A US-based organization advocating computer science education did just that, posting on its website the code for making a "Flappy Game."

"Flappy Bird is a simple game, and using the basics of computer science, any student can create their own version with endless possibilities," Code.org said on its website.

With the code, it said children can build their own Flappy game, "whether it’s Flappy Bird, or Flappy Easter Bunny, Flappy Santa, Flappy Shark with Lasers, Flappy Fairy or Flappy Underwater Unicorn."


It also said that with the code, any student can create his or her own variation of the popular but now-defunct mobile game "with endless possibilities."





"You can make your own rules, and make your flappy game as easy or as hard as you want. You can even reverse the scoring or make it change randomly as you play," Code.org said.

But best of all, it said students can share the code with one click so their friends can play the game on any computer or phone, or even inside Facebook or Twitter.

Meanwhile, Code.org also marked its birthday with one billion lines of code written by students in under three months.

"Since we launched the Hour of Code and its follow-up course in December, over 27 million users, in 34 languages, across 170 countries together wrote one billion lines of code in our tutorials," it said.

In 15 minutes

A separate report on GeekWire said the code allows children to develop their own "Flappy Bird" game in 15 minutes.

It quoted Code.org co-founder Hadi Partovi, a Seattle entrepreneur who founded Code.org with his brother Ali, as saying the idea for a "Flappy Bird" tutorial came about during a Code.org employee happy hour.

"The entire group was playing Flappy Bird competitively when they realized they could not only play this fun game, but also let others create it," it said.

“We already know that the chance to ‘make an app’ is something people aspire to, but they think it’s out of reach. We want to give kids something that lets them express a degree of creativeness,” Partovi said.

“There are endless possibilities and kids can try them and realize the creativity involved in computer science within just 20 minutes,” Partovi added.

Code.org described itself as a "non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science education by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color."

"Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer programming. We believe computer science should be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra," it said. — VC/TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com