Minecraft Update 1.37 Today on PS4, PS3 & PS Vita Adds DLC Support
Out in Europe and Japan, and coming later today in North America, Minecraft update 1.37 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita adds support for all of the newly released DLC and fixes some issues.
For £1.69, the Halloween Battle Map offers a new Battle Mini Game map built with the Halloween texture set. Also £1.69, the Campfire Tales Skin Pack packs in 16 spooky skins, from mythical monsters to other strange sightings. Then, for £2.49, there’s Battle Map Pack 4, which includes three new maps: “Creep through the deserted, snowbound Dig, slog it out amid the over-sized furniture of Shrunk and hoedown before you showdown in the dusty Frontier.”
If you prefer DLC bundles, you can now pick up the Spooky Bundle for £5.79 to get the Halloween Mash-up, Halloween Battle Map, and Campfire Tales Skin Pack. If you want to spend £13.99 on the Builder’s Pack, you’ll receive these six packs: Biome Settlers Skin Pack 1, Candy Texture Pack, Cartoon Texture Pack, Pattern Texture Pack, Plastic Texture Pack, and Greek Mythology Mash-up.
Here’s the full list of patch notes for Minecraft update 1.37 on PlayStation:
- Added Halloween Battle Map.
- Added Campfire Tales Skin Pack.
- Added Battle Map Pack 4.
- Fixes for missing/incorrect tooltips when looking at various blocks and entities.
- Fix for Endermen not becoming hostile when a player makes eye contact with them.
- Fix for only one of eight Fossil variants generating per world.
- Fix for igniting TNT blocks while one is already lit causing them to disappear.
- Fix for crash that may occur if the Ender Dragon attacks a group of Zombies.
- Stop faster healing due to food saturation in Battle mini game
- Updated Battle maps to remove some areas where players could get stuck.
- Fix for MCCE 2521 – Shears don’t break web blocks into Web block drop.
- Fix for MCCE 2505 – Knocking a Guardian off a height great enough to kill it on falling would cause a crash.
- Fix for MCCE-2478 – Oak and Iron Doors Items have the wrong texture in the Inventory.
- Fix for MCCE-2420: Sub Account Content Restriction. (PS4 only)
The new update is also available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Wii U.
Expect all of the DLC to be available in North America following the update.
Read more at http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/10/25/minecraft-update-1-37-today-ps4-ps3-ps-vita-adds-dlc-support/#bBO0xj69OoIGqqtp.99
Minecraft Update 1.37 Today on PS4, PS3 & PS Vita Adds DLC Support
11-year-old soccer fan recreates Celtic Park stadium in Minecraft
The best part about Minecraft is the ability to express and create. Mojang’s sandbox has been used for some pretty impressive builds such as the Kingdom of Galekin that took over five years to build and is still going. Even sports fans can dive into the blocky world and give their support through creativity.
Sam is only 11 years old, and in Minecraft, he is a master architect. He is also a big fan of the CelticFootball Club from Glasgow and proved by building up their home turf in the video ground. The 3D tour of the stadium moves through the tunnel and welcomes the player with bright green field and seats. The build is even complete with a 5-1 score mocking Celtics rivals, the Rangers, from earlier in the season.
It was a creation made specifically for #BuildItScotland, an initiative to introduce children to new technology and ways to recreate monuments and landmarks from Scotland. Maybe we’ll see some other fun builds from the hashtag, but Sam’s Celtic Park in Minecraft scores major points with us!
11-year-old soccer fan recreates Celtic Park stadium in Minecraft
Microsoft launches Minecraft: Education Edition for schools
Microsoft wants kids playing Minecraft in class, and it’s hoping that schools will not just let them, but support them. It’s launching a version of Minecraft today called Minecraft: Education Edition that includes some classroom tools and a way to roll out accounts to every student in a class or district.
The app has been in development since last January, when Microsoft purchased a mod working toward the same goal. The educational tools went into a beta period this summer, with Microsoft hoping to have a full release ready by the time school started. It missed that date by a couple months, but the game is now ready to go on both Windows 10 and macOS.
Despite the new name, Education Edition isn’t dramatically different from regular Minecraft. It’s pretty much the same game, just with some tools that’ll make things easier for teachers — there’s a way to see where all their students are on a map, give students different resources, and teleport people to specific locations. There are also a few new in-game items,
including a camera and a chalkboard.
Microsoft’s hope is that Minecraft can keep kids engaged while teachers use it to explore other subjects. Educators will have to build out worlds that connect with whatever they’re teaching, be it a setting in a book or a historic structure. In one example on the game’s website, an enormous blocky model of the human eye has been made, meant for students to venture inside of to see how it works.
Worlds and lesson plans will be collected on Education Edition’s website, but Microsoft isn’t going to be making these on its own. It’ll be up to teachers to create instructive worlds, and therein could be the problem. Creating a Minecraft world is a time-consuming process — and that’s true even for people who are familiar with Minecraft. Getting teachers to create lesson after lesson just isn’t practical.
That means the success of Education Edition lies in large part on the broader community of educators. If there aren’t enough teachers out there who want to make and share worlds and lesson plans for Minecraft, it’s going to be hard to get a lot of people using it.
The game is available to schools starting today, for $5 per student for a year’s subscription.
Guide to beacons in Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta
How do I use beacons in Minecraft?
Successfully activating a beacon in Minecraft is a pretty big deal. First, you have to kill a Wither and collect a Nether star, second, you have to craft a beacon, and third, you have to create a pyramid on which you place the beacon.
When a beacon is working, it shoots a bright beam of light into the sky, which all players can use as a reference point. The beacon also gives players within a certain radius several power-ups. Here’s how to get your beacon going in Minecraft.
How to obtain a Nether star
Getting yourself a Nether star is quite a process on its own. You need to travel to the Nether, collect some skeleton skulls and soul sand, summon a Wither, and kill it.
If you’re already a pro at summoning and defeating Withers, you should have no problem here. Unsure of the complete process? Check out our complete guide to summoning and defeating a Wither.
How to craft a beacon
Each Wither drops one Nether star. To craft a beacon, you’ll also need three blocks of obsidian and five blocks of glass.
This crafting recipe will give you one beacon.
How to build a pyramid
A beacon cannot simply be placed anywhere — it must be placed atop a pyramid for it to work properly. There also cannot be any blocks between the top of the pyramid where the beacon sits and the open sky. The pyramid must be constructed from blocks of iron, gold, diamond, or emerald. The type of power-up available, the effect range, and the strength of the power-ups depends on how many levels the pyramid has.
You can create a pyramid for one beacon, or you can create a pyramid for multiple beacons.
Single-beacon pyramid
Your pyramid can have one level with nine blocks and a beacon. 
Your pyramid can have two levels with 34 blocks and a beacon. 
Your pyramid can have three levels with 83 blocks and a beacon. 
Your pyramid can have four levels with 164 blocks and a beacon. 
Multiple-beacon pyramid
Multiple-beacon pyramids contain many more solid blocks of iron, gold, diamond, or emerald, and are usually reserved for Realms where multiple people can contribute to the project.
The pyramids are built in the same manner but are expanded to fit however many beacons you’d like on top. The example above has four beacons on top. The bottom layer of the pyramid uses 100 blocks, the second layer uses 64 blocks, the third layer uses 36 blocks, and the top layer uses 16 blocks. That’s a whopping 216 blocks of solid ore.
Beacon power-ups
There are five powers you can choose from a beacon situated atop a four-level pyramid.
Speed: Get ready to run fast.
Haste: Mine blocks…fast!
Resistance: You’re more resilient to damage.
Jump Boost: Jump farther and higher.
Strength: Deal more damage.
Your four-level pyramid will also automatically give you Regeneration, which regenerates your health.
The range of these effects depends on how big of a pyramid you have beneath your beacon.
- One-level pyramid: 20-block range
- Two-level pyramid: 30-block range
- Three-level pyramid: 40-block range
- Four-level pyramid: 50-block range
When you leave the range of the effect, it will wear off after about 5-9 seconds.
Your beacons
Have you taken the time to kill a Wither, craft a beacon, and place it atop a pyramid? How long did it take? Tell us all about it in the comments section below!
How ‘Dragon Quest Builders’ Blends ‘Minecraft’ With ‘Zelda’
Minecraft is not an easy act to follow. Many have tried, many have failed – most notably perhaps the Everquest spin-off, Landmark, now languishing with a “mostly negative” rating on Steam. More successful was Terraria, which carved its own niche in the sandbox genre, slipping out from under Minecraft’s shadow by existing in a completely different dimension, literally – it was in 2D. So when Square Enix – makers of Final Fantasy – decided to take a crack at the new “builder” genre with Dragon Quest Builders, many were skeptical, noting that there are precious few examples of Japanese game developers successfully adapting Western game designs. We’re all still waiting for the first great Japanese first-person shooter.
Dragon Quest Builders released this October in the US and is currently enjoying an 83% rating on review aggregator site Metacritic, matching stablemate, Final Fantasy XIII. It’s a critical success and a bracing, fully-formed game. It’s even more surprising that, considering its chunky aesthetic, Builders is a game that plays less like either Minecraft or Dragon Quest (the classic RPG series that inspired it), and more like The Legend of Zelda, with large, explorable worlds enhanced by building and crafting. A game like this could have ended up a half-baked jack-of-all-trades, and yet is one of Square Enix’s biggest surprises in years. At launch in Japan (on PS Vita, PS3, and PS4 – only the Vita and PS4 versions are available in North America) it sold over 700,000 copies, and if quality is any yardstick, it’ll meet with similar success in the West.
Dragon Quest Builders succeeds as a concept mainly because it isn’t trying to simply ape Minecraft. The focus for the Builders development team was to take Dragon Quest‘s iconic elements (slimes, Akira Toriyama’s character designs, an inviting and colorful fantasy setting) and design a pliable world around the mythology of the very first Dragon Quest game – the 1986 blockbuster hit for the Nintendo Entertainment System that set a template for the RPG genre that still resonates today.
“This is a game that anyone could play without hesitation, where you can naturally master crafting as you play, ” says Noriyoshi Fujimoto, Builders‘ producer. “There is a solid story and world, in which the buildings you created can be used to make progress. What you build is not the end; the villagers react to it and make use of it as well.”
Drawing instant comparisons to Minecraft presented its own challenges, though, and Fujimoto will freely admit that Western games do certain things better. Instead of simply applying the Dragon Quest brand onto a Minecraft clone (in Japan, it’s basically a license to print money), the team focused on making something that would work in its own right. While clearly influenced by Western open-world games, Fujimoto’s team was careful to play to their strengths – RPGs and action games. “Unlike in the old days, we can now play international titles more easily,” he says. “I think Western studios are better at open-world games, presenting the realism and detail and to give more freedom within the game.”
A self-professed fan of Ubisoft’s best-selling Assassin’s Creed series – which are known for their increasingly vast environments – Fujimoto took note of some of the key mechanics in Western-developed open-world games, particularly the cause-and-effect dynamics where every action has real consequence. What the team took from their observations of Assassin’s Creed was to ensure that players could experience a similar level of freedom, while offering all of the necessary tools and materials in Builders‘ sandbox to let players build whatever they desired.
Although you are initially given various templates to follow, architecturally-speaking you’re free to channel your inner Frank Lloyd Wright.
This meant changing things up and moving away from Dragon Quest‘s traditional and strategic turn-based style. “We decided to forgo the classic command-based battle because we felt the action-style matched the game better,” Fujimoto says. While Dragon Quest fans will enjoy the nods to the original game, Builders was designed with a much broader audience in mind.
In Builders, the player is tasked with rebuilding the world of Alefgard, which was destroyed by the Dragonlord at the end of the first Dragon Quest. This is where Builders most closely mirrors the game style of games like Minecraft and Terraria. Fujimoto quickly realized how their game could improve on what they perceived as Minecraft‘s fundamental shortcoming. “Kazuya Niinou, the development director, felt that the freedom of building things in the sandbox genre was very interesting,” Fujimoto says, but points out that the lack of a focused narrative disappointed those players looking for a more traditional, plot-driven game. “Through trial and error,” he continues, “we came up with the idea of putting it together with the story-driven RPG style of Dragon Quest.”
Planting your Banner of Hope in the center of town causes NPCs to migrate to your location, triggering a wave of quests and advice to propel you through the game’s narrative arc. Once your objectives are clear you’re free to go about gathering materials however you choose, ultimately using them to rebuild your town. Although you are initially given various templates to follow, architecturally-speaking you’re free to channel your inner Frank Lloyd Wright.
Like The Legend Of Zelda, Builders offers vast environments suited for exploration, viewed in third person, with enemies populating each of the game’s four worlds in plain sight. Players can craft more powerful weapons and armor over time to compensate for each successive area’s more challenging encounters, but the primary source of satisfaction is gained simply through exploring, building, and crafting, and reshaping the world to your liking. “Hunting for treasure is fun, of course, but you can also enjoy the sense of achievement after completing a tunnel, or rearranging the tunnel to make it magnificent,” Fujimoto says. Magnificent is right. Dragon Quest Builders is that rare game that may at first glance look like Minecraft, but on the strength of its own merits, escapes its predecessor’s shadow completely.
Google launches Tango AR smartphone system
After more than two years of tinkering and finessing, today Google finally officially launched its Tango smartphone augmented reality system to the masses.
Right now, it’s only available on Lenovo’s $499 Phab2 Pro, which arrives in stores in the US today, but you can expect to see this in a bunch of Android phones in the next year or so.
About 35 applications are launching with Tango support at launch. I had a chance to demo about a dozen of them and results were mixed. Developers are really still figuring out what these cameras are good for and some might be trying a bit too hard to capitalize on the depth-sensing feature. There are certainly some ground-breaking apps in early infancy.
For gamers, Tango certainly offers a chance to have a more intense gaming session. Titles like Crayola Color Blaster show the ability of games to capitalize on larger playing spaces while utilizing the technology’s tracking abilities.
What were ultimately most intriguing were the non-gaming apps. iStaging allows you to position furniture in your home and see what a new lamp would look like on your desk. This app was one of the most effective in highlighting how much better Tango’s mapping has gotten over the past several months. Matterport’s Scenes app allows users to capture their spaces in volumetric 3D, what that’s actually useful for is a bit limited in scope, but visually it’s really freaking cool and highlights just how sophisticated even Tango’s first effort is.
Tango has tellingly undergone some organizational changes within Google since it was first introduced. The program is now operated directly alongside Google Daydream, the company’s central smartphone virtual reality effort. It’s clear that there’s very little intention to keep these programs separate for too long. The opportunities offered by Tango in terms of inside-out positional tracking would offer VR a major boon if a smartphone is launched that is Tango and Daydream compatible.
For all its notoriety and specialty, Tango is a feature bound for mass consumption. Depth sensing cameras are a feature that will inevitably land on smartphones with the clear use cases becoming most apparent after we all readily have access to them. Tango is starting with a rather tepid launch on a single Lenovo phablet, but the quality experience is certainly there.
Minecraft: Education Edition officially launches
Following months of testing and free trials for early adopters, Microsoft announced this morning that its learning-focused version of the popular Minecraft game, Minecraft: Education Edition, is now available for purchase. The game is available in 50 countries and in 11 different languages, the company said, and will include the Classroom Mode companion app that lets teachers manage settings and interact with students in the game.
Microsoft had first announced its plans to develop a version of the game for educators at the beginning of the year, after acquiring the learning game MinecraftEdu for an undisclosed sum. The company then built upon that library of lessons and activities to develop programs for teachers across a variety of subjects, including STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), history, language, and art, for example.
At the time of the deal, Microsoft had said it made sense to move in this direction given that Minecraft was already being using in over 7,000 classrooms in over 40 countries worldwide, even without Minecraft’s official involvement.
With that market in mind, Minecraft: Education Edition got off the ground, and now offers lessons for kids as young as five up to teens and even college students.
Teachers were given free trials during the testing period, ahead of today’s official launch, in order to offer feedback and try Minecraft in their classrooms. The company in September said that, during these trials, over 35,000 students and teachers have used the software.
The companion app Classroom Mode was previously announced, along with the November launch date. This new app lets teachers change the variables for the world, offer up items to students, communicate with students, and transport students virtually from a central interface.
Now live, Minecraft: Education Edition is no longer free, but will instead cost $5 per user. Volume pricing will be available for larger institutions.
The software will also continue to be updated over time, notes the company, to include new game features from other editions of Minecraft. At launch, the official version includes all the latest updates previously available in the Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition beta, says Microsoft.
In addition to the software, Microsoft offers a dedicated website for educators at education.minecraft.net, where they’ll find lesson plans, tutorials, starter worlds, and collaborate with others. There’s also a more structured program called Minecraft Mentors available, which will team a teacher new to Minecraft with others with experience to learn how to use it in the classroom.
Guy Spends Five Years Building A Minecraft Castle
Five years ago, danrharvey wanted to “get stuck into a creative mode build” in Minecraft. Looking back on it today, he’s built something that’s not only original, but beautiful.
“It was fairly aimless at first”, he says, “I just started building a castle, with tunnels beneath, then about three or four months in, during an electrical storm my computer crashed and the save game corrupted. Disheartened, I stepped away from the game for a while, but it began to stew in my mind to start a new build, but it had to be big, and cool. Then one morning I awoke from a dream with an idea fully formed in my head. I’d build a castle with four different sides, because Minecraft is on a square grid. Each side would be similar, especially around the central tower, but as you moved out, the four sides would take on their own personality and function.”
Those four are a “Fortress” side (with defensive ramparts), a “Residence” side (with housing and gardens), a “Town” side (with stores and churches) and a “Factory” side (with farms and the buildings that power the rest of the build).
The level of detail borders on the obsessive throughout the castle, but then, that’s what makes it so amazing. The more little nooks, crannies and quirks, the more it comes across as a real place.
He even made his own custom resource pack for the build, whipping up his own mossy stone, glass and castle decorations.
You can see more pics of the build here.
Microsoft is bringing Minecraft to the Apple TV
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today that Microsoft is planning to bring Minecraft to the Apple TV. While it was a brief mention on stage at Apple’s event, Cook did reveal you’ll be able to build worlds straight from the Apple TV. It’s likely that the app will be similar to the existing Pocket Edition for iOS, allowing you to play with other Minecraft players across multiple platforms.
Developing. Check out our Apple MacBook event live blog for the latest updates and our Apple hub page for all the news!
Minecraft’s Boss Update Is Underwhelming and Buggy
Following an E3 tease earlier this year, Minecraft’s “Boss Update” for the Pocket version and Windows 10 has finally arrived. The most exciting aspect of this update has to be the add-on system, which allows players to edit various values in the game to create their own modified Minecraft experience.
It’s not full-on modding, because Minecraft players can only tweak existing values. Even so, the update represents a big step forward for the game, which has had no official mod support at all so far. So far the only entities that can be modified are mobs and NPCs, but presumably if this roll-out goes well, we will see the add-on capability extended to other areas of the game as well.
One add-on I sampled was a castle attack/defense map with wacky mob changes, like attack rabbits and witches riding wolves. Another add-on I experimented included a city under attack by aliens, which naturally you have to save.
These maps were thoroughly underwhelming. Castle Siege was an unplayable confusion of glitching and teleporting mobs that chugged so badly, it threatened to brick both my phone and my tablet. Actually, this is apparently a common occurence with other players: reports around the web say that the update is very taxing to mobile hardware, to the point of crashing on some older devices.
Alien Invasion was little more than a thin coat of paint on the base game—the aliens still sound and behave like zombies and skeletons (because they are). As usual, Mojang tapped some very talented builders—in this case, YouTuber Sethbling—and the maps are lovingly crafted, with tons of small details, decorative flourishes, and clever builds that show off Minecraft. Even so, add-ons still need work.
With add-ons, you can only edit existing values, not create new ones, so if you want to build a new mob you have to replace an old one. It’s not a huge problem, but not letting players populate the world with new mobs seems like an oversight.
Though the official offerings leave a lot to be desired and the add-on system is still limited, it shows potential. With add-ons, there is room to experiment in interesting ways: exploding sheep, deadly rabbits, chickens the size of houses, you name it. Small tweaks can be made to mob behavior and values to make the game more or less dangerous, opening up a lot of avenues for experimentation.
The update also allows resource packs to change the look of your game, and comes with four professionally designed packs that can be bought on the store. Players will be able to upload their own resource packs, but it’s easy to be a little cynical about this particular addition. given Minecraft already has a dedicated community of artists and modders who have been creating resource packs on the original Java edition for years, and they are are bound to be frustrated by the addition of support and paid resources for MCPE instead.
Largely because of this, the add-on system is likely to divide the community even further. This update is for Minecraft Pocket Edition and Windows 10, but the mod community heavily favors the original Java edition, and have been asking for something like this for half a decade.
The success and failure of the add-on system will hinge on whether or not modders and creators can be enticed to make the shift from the Java edition to the MCPE edition, and so far there’s not a lot of enthusiasm for that. Without more are better tools, the best minds are likely to stick with what they know.
Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.
Customizing Windows 10 Creators Update could be costly
There are many users who like to change the look of their Windows 10 Desktop, using all kinds of themes. Next spring, Microsoft will release Windows 10 Creators Update, which will bring Paint 3D and other 3D tools, as well as a new menu under Themes section which will include a color picker and a sidebar on the right side, which will allow users to customize the experience to their own liking. In addition, there will be plenty paid themes that will be purchased directly from the Windows Store.
Windows 10 Creators Update will be launched next spring and it will come as a free upgrade with 3D-focused tools. Microsoft’s plans to bring a new version of Microsoft Paint were leaked a few weeks ago and recently, the company has announced that Windows Insiders are allowed to test out an early version of this application. Paint 3D app was also published in the Windows Store, but it can be installed only on devices running on Windows 10 Creators Update, and this means that’s available only to Insiders who are part of Microsoft’s online community. The modernized Paint app will allow them to export their creations and share them with the rest of the Insiders, or they can download 3D objects created by others.
But Windows 10 Creators Update is not only about creating 3D objects in Paint. Microsoft will introduce many features and users will be given a free hand to customize the look of Windows 10 the way they like. In the 1.14-minute promotional video that Microsoft has posted on YouTube, the company has revealed that soon, users will be able to select from thousands of possible shades of accent colors, as in the Personalization section of the Settings page will be found a new color picker with 50 accent colors.
New Tech News: Microsoft Unveils Windows 10 Creator Update to Include Surface Dial, Surface Studio; Apple TV Adds ‘Minecraft’ to the Lineup
During an event held in New York, Microsoft unveiled its newest additions to Windows 10 that will showcase a brand new gaming experience and improve user’s creativity.
One of the most noteworthy add-ons that came with the Windows 10 Creator update is the Paint 3D Preview. It helps users turn 2D images instantly into 3D objects with a simple press of a button.
Microsoft is also introducing Remix 3D along with the Windows 10 Creator update that will maintain uploads coming from the SketchUp app. This is one of the company’s initiatives to create an online community that caters to 3D printing fans.
Customers can also purchase new themes for Windows 10 which Microsoft has made available in the Windows Store. A new personalization section is now going to be included on the online store that comes complete with different themes that can transform the overall appearance of Windows 10.
The Windows 10 Creator update also added new attributes to the Xbox with streaming broadcasts and e-sports. A new tournament creation mode has also been generated so that gamers can customize their brackets. This is the result of Microsoft’s recent partnership with Beam that helps the company with the streaming service.
The Surface Studio is Microsoft’s newest all-in-one PC release that has a 28-inch PixelSense display that uses 13.5million pixels, along with a TrueColor quality that makes the colors on the screen vivid. The touch screen is around 12.5 mm, which is the thinnest measurement for an LCD monitor ever made.
Microsoft has included for the PC an Intel Core i5 processor along with an 8GB RAM and 1TB hybrid drive. The Surface Studio monitor can also be swiveled down to a 20-degree angle thanks to a zero gravity hinge. The entire PC unit is priced at around $2,999.
Microsoft also included on the update the Surface Dial that can be used with the screen of the Surface Studio. The dial will be automatically sensed by the system and it will generate tool sets and buttons for users that will help them in editing different designs.
The Microsoft Surface Dial is fully compatible with the Surface Book, along with the Surface Pro 3 and 4. The Surface Dial is priced at $99 and is available for pre-order.
On other tech news, Apple announced that the popular video game title “Minecraft” will be added to the lineup of the fourth-generation Apple TV roster before 2016 is over. Other details were not revealed so fans of the game are unsure whether “Minecraft” Pocket or another version will be made available.
Microsoft Monday: Windows 10 Creators Update, Surface Studio, Surface Dial, Minecraft For Apple TV
“Microsoft Monday” takes a look back at the past week of news related to Microsoft. This week, “Microsoft Monday” includes details about a fake “Blue Screen of Death” malware that is spreading, the free games for Xbox Live Gold members in November, the Windows 10 Creators Update, the Surface Book i7, the Surface Studio, the Surface Dial, the new MyPeople feature, Minecraft coming to Apple TV and more!
Microsoft Warns That A Fake BSoD Malware Called Hicurdismos Is Spreading
There is a new type of malware that is spreading known as “Hicurdismos.” Hicurdismos poses as Microsoft Security Essentials installer software. In Windows 8 and Windows 10, Windows Defender is installed and enabled by default. But some users might believe they need to download and install Microsoft Security Essentials.
Recently Microsoft discovered a threat detected as SupportScam:MSIL/Hicurdismos, which pretends to be a Microsoft Security Essentials installer. And Hicurdismos shows a fake Windows error message (known as the BSoD or the “blue screen of death”). The normal BSoD requires the user to reboot the computer, but the fake one recommends users to call a fake technical support number. Here is what the fake BSoD looks like:
Fake Blue Screen of Death by Hicurdismos / Photo Credit: Microsoft
And this is what the fake Hicurdismos installer looks like:
Hicurdismos fake security installer / Photo Credit: Microsoft
“The threat of technical support scams has been around for years, but it’s recently been observed to be growing. We’ve seen attackers becoming more sophisticated with their social engineering tactics to try to mislead users into calling for technical support and then they are asked for payment to ‘fix the problem’ on the PC that does not exist. Real error messages from Microsoft do not include support contact details,” said Microsoft in a blog post.
In the month of November, Xbox Live Gold users will be eligible for four new free games — two on the Xbox One and two on the Xbox 360. And both of the Xbox 360 games can be played on the Xbox One with backward compatibility.
Xbox One
Xbox Live Gold members can download Super Dungeon Bros for free during the month of November. And Murdered: Soul Suspect will be available for free from November 16th – December 15th.
Xbox 360
Monkey Island: SE will be free for Xbox Live Gold members between November 1st – November 15th. And Xbox Live Gold members can download Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon for free between November 16th – November 30th.
Microsoft Announces Windows 10 Creators Update, Surface Book i7, Surface Studio, Surface Dial And MyPeople
Last week, Microsoft hosted a Windows 10 event in New York City where it announced the Windows 10 Creators Update and several new devices.
Windows 10 Creators Update
Microsoft is emphasizing new creativity and gaming experiences with the Windows 10 Creators Update. One of the biggest additions is Paint 3D Preview.
Paint 3D / Photo Credit: Microsoft
Paint 3D Preview allows users to quickly create 3D objects. Using Paint 3D Preview, you can also turn 2D images into 3D objects “with just a click.” And Minecraft players will be able to 3D print items from the game Paint 3D. Microsoft is creating an online community of 3D printing fans to share their work and upload creations called Remix 3D. Remix 3D will support uploads from the SketchUp application.
The Creators Update also adds new features to Xbox such as e-sports and streaming broadcasts. Microsoft announced it has partnered with a company called Beam for the streaming partnership. And there is a tournament creation mode so users can customize brackets. In the past, Microsoft organized the Arena tournaments.
Microsoft Partners With Five Companies For Virtual Reality
At the Windows 10 event, Microsoft announced it has partnered with 5 companies for its VR headset platform. The five companies include HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer. These five companies will build virtual reality headsets with starting prices of $299. This means that there will be many more options than having to pick between VR headsets made by Oculus and HTC.
The new devices that were announced include the the Surface Book i7, Surface Studio and the Surface Dial.
Surface Book i7
Surface Book i7 / Photo Credit: Microsoft
The Surface Book i7 is the successor to the 13.5-inch Surface Book released in 2015. In comparison to the previous Surface Book, the Surface Book i7 has 30% more battery life meaning it has up to 16 hours of battery life rather than 12 hours in the previous model. The Surface Book has an Intel Core i7 processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GPU and a detachable 13-inch display. The retail price of the Surface Book i7 starts at $2,399. At the starting price, the Surface Book i7 has 8GB of RAM and 256 SSD storage. With the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GPU and 2GB GDDR5 memory, the Surface Book i7 is able to push 1.9 teraflops of graphics which gives it double the performance of last year’s model.
Microsoft Surface Studio
Microsoft also unveiled an all-in-one PC called the Surface Studio. The Surface Studio has a 12.5mm touch screen, making it the thinnest LCD monitor ever built. The monitor is a 28-inch PixelSense Display with 13.5 million pixels and a TrueColor feature making colors appear rich and vivid. With a zero gravity hinge, the monitor can be brought down to a 20-degree angle.
The Surface Studio has a starting price of $2,999. This model includes an Intel Core i5 processor, 1TB hybrid drive and 8GB RAM.
Surface Dial
Surface Dial / Photo Credit: Microsoft
Another major hardware announcement was the Surface Dial. The Surface Dial can be placed on the screen of the Surface Studio. From there, the Surface Studio will be able to automatically detect the location of the dial to generate buttons and toolsets for artists to edit designs. This tool would be especially useful for scrolling and zooming. You can also use the Dial to click or tap to pull up certain features. The Surface Dial – which is also compatible with the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book – is available for pre-order now at a cost of $99.
MyPeople
Microsoft MyPeople
Microsoft is also working on new features as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update so that you can message people from the desktop similar to the way Apple’s iMessage platform works. The MyPeople feature will show you your contacts at the bottom right of the screen and you can send them content without having to open up a separate app.
“With MyPeople, you get faster ways to connect and share with the people who matter most. Instantly access your key people from the taskbar, use apps of your choice to connect, send emojis, and share files or photos with drag-and-drop,” says Microsoft.
The Windows 10 Creators Update is expected to launch in the spring of 2017.
Minecraft Coming To Apple TV
Minecraft / Image Credit: Mojang
During the Mac announcement last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed an Apple TV update. The Apple TV now has over 8,000 apps and it will soon be getting Minecraft, the popular sandbox game created by Microsoft’s Mojang. Specifically, Minecraft should be added to the Apple TV by the end of the year. To optimize the game play experience, you will most likely want to buy a third party controller for the Apple TV.
Microsoft Monday: Windows 10 Creators Update, Surface Studio, Surface Dial, Minecraft For Apple TV
Deal: Get Xbox One S 500 GB Minecraft Bundle for only $279.99
Once again, before the many savings that Microsoft is offering on its consoles for the holiday season, another retailer is offering a deal on the Xbox One S console. This time online retailer Ebay is offering the Xbox One S 500 GB Console – Minecraft Bundle for only $279.99, $20.00 off of the original $299.99 that Ebay normally sells the console for (right now the best price as sometimes the console retails for more). The Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle (500GB)1 includes the Xbox One S 500GB console, an Xbox Wireless Controller, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack, Minecraft Builder’s Pack, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, and a 14-day Xbox Live Gold trial.
The deal is also available with free shipping, so hurry up and take advantage of this deal if you’ve been in the market for a new Xbox One S console, as the listing states that only limited quantities are available.
Read original article hereDeal: Get Xbox One S 500 GB Minecraft Bundle for only $279.99
Google News & Updates : Company To Have An Eye-Tracking Start-Up As It Acquires Eyefluence
Before you get all excited let’s make it clear; Google is watching what you are looking as Eyefluence will be joining Google’s team as Eyefluence announced it.
Eyefluence is founded in 2013 according to Business Insider. Jim Marggraff, founder of the Eyefluence who is working on virtual reality and augmented reality applications that tracks eye behavior, is an entrepreneur who previously founded Livescribe that is now acquired by Anoto. And it looks like Google is also watching Eyefluence.
This November, the Daydream View virtual reality headset will be available with Google launching it according to ZDNet. This may bring the VR apps to mainstream. To make this device even better, the eye-tracking components is one of the things that must be considered. Now it might have been the reason Google has been eyeing Eyefluence.
What makes Eyefluence different from the other companies, like SMI and Tobii, is that Eyefluence focuses on the eye gestures cues that can navigate menus and selections according to TechCrunch. In other words, it makes use of the user’s eyes as the mouse. Other than the use of the eyes as the mouse there are other technical use like foveated rendering that chooses areas of the screen to show images using high-density displays that will result at a lower-resolution based to where you are actually focused.
As of now, the company has raised a total of $21.6 million in two rounds. Intel Capital and Motorola Venture Capital as the investors and NHN Investment, Jazz Venture Partners and Dolby Family Ventures participated.
Google is very serious with its virtual reality headset and it is not shocking that Eyefluence was chosen to be acquired by Google. People can see that Eyefluence was chosen because of its incredible team, strong partnership and advance eye-interaction technology that makes it a good choice.
Google News & Updates : Company To Have An Eye-Tracking Start-Up As It Acquires Eyefluence
Apple News & Updates: Company Working With Minecraft To Launch It On Apple TV?
MacBook Event was held last Thursday and everyone felt excited as Apple announced the Apple TV. The best part would be this brand new TV would allow access from users from the TV content across other devices.
That announcement got Minecraft fans most excited and thrilled. Minecraft will be coming to Apple TV device before the end of 2016.
Minecraft is a popular game, a block-building survival game that got a lot of people hooked. The announcement would mean that the creators of Minecraft need to work on another platform again. The mobile versions of Minecraft on Windows 10, iOS and Android will be part of the apps cross- platform play.
Minecraft, now officially announced according to TechCrunch, to be on Apple TV, can result to a major assumption that lots of platforms would have its own version. An article in Venture Beat stated that the game Minecraft was originally released for PCs. Also, the property of $2.5 billion was purchased by Microsoft in 2014.
Microsoft, as much as Apple is interested with Minecraft, has its own plan with it. Last June, Microsoft released its plan in a tradeshow that the Minecraft experience will unified across devices through Xbox Live. So now that Apple announced that Minecraft will be on Apple TV, Microsoft’s market have a chance to get more consumers.
Apple TV though have more than Minecraft in mind. By the end of the year, there will be more than 1,600 apps and there is a possibility that a bigger app would be announced to take part.According to BGR, Apple while looking for a better TV experience came up with the app ‘TV’, this is the brand new Apple TV app. This could change the way one watch on Apple TV, iPhone and iPad.
The TV app by Apple will be released this December in the US and is available on tvOS, iOS and macOS. And there’s one interesting information that came from BGR, Netflix and Amazon Video seems to be ‘not’ part of Apple’s new venture towards Apple TV.
Apple News & Updates: Company Working With Minecraft To Launch It On Apple TV?
How Minecraft unlocks creativity and collaboration in classrooms
Yes, that Minecraft: the game that lets you slay explosive creatures with makeshift weapons and concoct towering structures with tiny blocks. Mojang and Microsoft’s smash sandbox—a chunky 3D building and survival simulation with few objectives or limitations—has already sold more than 106 million copies across computers, smartphones, consoles, and tablets.
How can a game like that help schools? It’s not meant as a playground or distraction, but used smartly and sparingly, it spices up rote lessons and engages students by utilizing a space they already know and love. Some teachers are already onboard, and a previous indie initiative has given way to Microsoft’s own expanded Minecraft: Education Edition, which arrives on November 1 with classroom-friendly tweaks to keep children focused on the tasks at hand.
Mining lessons
Minecraft’s foray into education began with MinecraftEdu, which launched in 2011 after teacher Joel Levin and partner Santeri Koivisto saw the instructional possibilities and secured a license from Mojang. Microsoft acquired Mojang and the Minecraft franchise for $2.5 billion in September 2014, and soon began talking with Koivisto’s TeacherGaming LLC about MinecraftEdu’s future.
Ultimately, Microsoft purchased the rights to expand its reach and capabilities with its in-house team and resources. “They did an amazing job helping to define a space for Minecraft in education,” says Deirdre Quarnstrom, Director of Minecraft Education at Microsoft. “They reached the early adopter audience.”
Attempting to reach everyone else required some work, however. For the renamed and rebuilt Education Edition, announced in January and available to teachers in a free open beta since July, Microsoft made it easier for schools to purchase licenses and securely log into the software via its Office 365 Education platform. Further tweaks include a new Classroom Mode management tool for teachers, a simplified process for importing worlds, and an in-game camera and portfolio for charting progress over time and exporting snapshots.
Overall, the biggest goal was to not lose sight of what makes Minecraft so appealing in the first place. “[We needed to keep] it so it was still an open world and didn’t feel like it was a closed-down environment. The last thing we wanted to do was create the ‘school version’ that was less fun or more constrained,” says Quarnstrom. “It’s a very pure version of Minecraft.”
Immersive learning
Minecraft can’t replace traditional instruction, obviously, but it can support many subjects in a school’s curriculum. The malleable game worlds let students and teachers create and collaborate as they learn about and/or apply knowledge related to science, history, math, art, and more. Its building blocks can be harnessed in many different ways, allowing students to interact with and understand concepts in an engrossing new format.
Imagine learning seventh-grade history by exploring an elaborate medieval civilization in Minecraft. John Miller, a history teacher at Chalone Peaks Middle School in King City, California, crafted that unique experience for 150 of his students earlier this year. Selected students from an elective class helped construct a Minecraft recreation of 14th-century Birmingham, England, while a colleague created story prompts to help drive the learning process.
John Miller From there, Miller used the game and narrative threads to immerse students in concepts like feudalism, class structures, agriculture, and the role of the church as the plague rolled in. Across 10 class periods, the kids lived peasants’ lives in Minecraft, trying to survive while interacting with fellow students—and ultimately, seeking a cure for their afflictions in a thrilling finale. Each student then penned a story about his or her own experiences in the simulation.
“I can usually hear a pin drop, and am still impressed at seeing 150 middle-schoolers, most of whom struggle with writing, typing thousands of words of a truly original story,” wrote Miller in a detailed blog post on the unit (emphasis his). “Grading these is always a pleasure because everyone writes a story with a different interpretation of the events, and includes unique and creative details of a life led in a long ago time and place.”
He’s not the only educator to notice that kids are deeply motivated when using Minecraft to showcase skills and abilities. Steve Isaacs, a game design and development teacher at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, has witnessed much the same in his own classes and when students use Minecraft for projects for other subjects.
Microsoft
“If educators allow them to demonstrate their understanding of something in Minecraft, the level of work the kids put into it far exceeds what they would in other projects,” affirms Isaacs, a Minecraft Mentor for the Education Edition community. “It gives them a different approach to showing what they know. It’s not like they’re necessarily learning directly from Minecraft, but they’re using Minecraft to show it in a way that brings them much empowerment and pride.”
“The kids blow me away all the time,” adds Isaacs. “The beauty is, when I ask them to explain it to me, it’s because I truly don’t understand and want them to explain what they did. I didn’t used to have that experience all that often in teaching.”
Endless possibilities
Miller’s medieval simulation is one example in a growing stockpile of community-shared lessons, examples, blog posts, and video tutorials. Students can learn about weakened biodiversity, for example, as animals are removed from the ecosystem, or see the effects of climate change while practicing sustainable living and business practices. Minecraft can help kids grasp how fractions factor into everyday life, and let them craft elaborate Rube Goldberg physics machines not bound by classroom size or physical materials.
It’s not just limited to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects, either—even the arts benefit from Minecraft. Students can use pixel art to learn about the work of American painter Chuck Close, or recreate the style of Brutalist architecture, based on an example from the Royal Institute of British Architects and BlockWorks. Even poetry has a place: Miller designed a Minecraft lesson for a unit on Japanese poetry, tasking students with creating a visualized walkthrough of their own writing. Teachers can use these examples as a starting point, and modify or create lessons as needed.
Middle school seems like a sweet spot for Minecraft between age level and content complexity, but older and younger students use it too. In the Lufkin Independent School District in Lufkin, Texas, high-school networking students learn how to manage Minecraft servers and modified content. Meanwhile, first and second-graders build to stimulate their own writing.
“This is an activity that we’ve traditionally done with physical blocks, but Minecraft offers not only a much cleaner solution but a more creative one—especially when kids include moving parts,” says Rafranz Davis, Lufkin’s Executive Director of Professional and Digital Learning. Lufkin is licensing the Education Edition for every student in her district, and they can access the game from home, as well (that’s optional; don’t anticipate Minecraft homework).
“What sold me on Minecraft was that it gave me a blank space. I can build whatever I want in that space, and if I want to learn how to build something else, then I can go research it and learn how to build it,” Davis explains. “The research and detail that it takes for the basic aspect of building—it really engages [students] to look at details that they maybe wouldn’t see otherwise.”
Isaacs believes that Minecraft fosters a “community of learners,” in which game-savvy students work hand-in-hand with instructors. The teacher’s role is crucially important, however: they must guide the lessons, assist individual students, and connect the gameplay to real-world takeaways. And the pupils are improving their social skills, too. “When the kids are working together in Minecraft, those roles form organically. They’re learning about collaboration in a very authentic and meaningful way to them,” says Isaacs. “The communication that comes out of that is very natural.”
Microsoft Kids who are cautious in the classroom may also feel empowered in the game. Quarnstrom recalls observing a third-grade literature unit at an elementary school in Round Rock, Texas last year. One young girl seemed reluctant to participate as all of the kids shaped a fantasy storyline in the classroom, but when they went to the computer lab to bring the story’s setting to life, her demeanor sharply changed.
“Once she got into Minecraft, she was in chat and directing people on what tasks to do,” shares Quarnstrom. “Sometimes it’s the shyest, quietest student in the class that finds their voice in Minecraft.”
Building a foundation
Still, the Education Edition has its share of obstacles. Teachers’ schedules are already strained without asking them to learn and manage a computer game, although community support and shared plans can help. And there is resistance to bringing video games into learning environments, whether it’s from parents who worry about excessive screen time or from administrators who don’t understand the increasingly accepted value of games-based learning.
Cost is also a huge factor: English teacher and Minecraft Mentor Simon Baddeley recently called for “urgent reconsideration” in the licensing model. However, teachers who use Minecraft in their curriculum claim real benefits, and students are responding enthusiastically. In fact, what convinced Davis and some reluctant principals in her East Texas district was an initial trial run with a club of at-risk students, which showed how motivational this learning game can be.
“What they saw was that on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m., the kids were at school before the principal because they wanted to get there to play Minecraft,” she asserts. “That honestly is what it took, and it changed the conversation.”
How Minecraft unlocks creativity and collaboration in classrooms
Nintendo CEO: We’ll make more than 2 million Switch consoles for March launch if needed
Nintendo is not holding back on the Switch due to supply constraints. Instead, the company doesn’t want systems sitting unsold in warehouses and on shelves.
Tatsumi Kimishima, Nintendo president and chief executive, said during a conference with investors that the company could roll out more than the planned 2 million Switch systems before the fiscal year ends March 31 if market demand is strong. The CEO previously said that the 2 million systems would hit before March, but it didn’t explain if that number was due to component shortages or conservative accounting. Nintendo provided fiscal guidance based on those numbers, and it likely wants a hurdle it can clear easily so that a potentially cool Switch launch doesn’t spook investors.
Nintendo is struggling to turn a profit, and keeping slack out of the supply chain is one key to generating net income from the Switch for the publisher. One way to keep those margins high is for Nintendo to avoid spending money on storage space in warehouses because retailers don’t want 5 million Switch units on launch day. Nintendo can also ensure stores are making frequent repeat orders if they are instantly selling out of their stock. So keeping a taut chain from manufacturing through to the customer will ensure that Nintendo minimizes losses.
At the same time, that could lead to shortages like the company experienced with the Wii. That system was difficult to find at launch and for almost the two years following that. So if consumers go nuts and jack up the preorder numbers, Nintendo has the capacity to turn up production to meet demand to a point. That confirms that the company isn’t necessarily worried about running out of displays or Tegra processors. It just wants to plan for a scenario where the Switch sells at about the rate that the Wii U did when it launched in 2012, which was about 3 million after six weeks.
Consumer excitement for the Switch already seems much deeper and broader than it was for the Wii U. At least that’s the impression many are taking away from the response on social media, and the 18.7 million views the trailer has racked up on YouTube. That’s already far more than the approximately 15 million views the Wii U trailer has more than four years later. Gamers are likely still waiting on price, launch games, and a few other answers before committing to making a purchase, but Nintendo seems like it could easily sell more than 2 million systems in March at this point in time.
Nintendo CEO: We’ll make more than 2 million Switch consoles for March launch if needed
Minecraft Launches Halloween DLC to Consoles
Mojang announced new DLC for Minecraft: Xbox One Edition and the accompanying console versions. The so aptly named Spooky Bundle includes three dlc packs to add some spooky fun to your crafting experience. The bundle includes the Halloween Mash-up, Halloween Battle Map, and the Campfire Tales Skin Pack. By purchasing the bundle, users do save some money versus buying all the packs separately.
Here is the video trailer showcasing all three of the DLC packs.
If you have been looking for a way to add some additional fright to your worlds, this content pack will be able to do just that.
Mentioned as well is Battle Map Pack 4 which includes three new maps. These maps are a deserted snowbound base, an over-sized furniture world seen below, and a dusty frontier map.
In addition to the new bundle. Mojang announced they will be hosting a special livestream on Halloween where their developers will unleash the new mobs that have been created with the new Add-Ons support. These will be able to be downloaded by the public as well.
Microsoft’s Remix 3D lets you share and print 3D creations from Minecraft and Paint 3D
Your blocky Minecraft worlds could soon invade reality.
During a Windows 10 event in New York City, Microsoft revealed that Minecraft players will be able to 3D print their creations next year. The same goes for what they build inside Paint 3D, the new art creation tool that Microsoft also unveiled at the event. This will be possible thanks to the Creator’s Update, which will hit the operating system in early 2017.
You’ll be able to upload creations from both to Remix 3D, a new Microsoft community where Windows users can share their work. Creations from the 3D modelling software SketchUp can also be put on Remix 3D. This is also where you’ll be able to 3D print these virtual objects.
Minecraft is one of the most popular titles of the $99.6 billion gaming industry, which is why Microsoft bought the game and its developer Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Minecraft is famous for user-generated content, and now its players can make their virtual creations real.
The social aspect has also been important for Minecraft. Remix 3D will give players a new place to check out friends’ creations without even having to boot up the game.
Microsoft’s Remix 3D lets you share and print 3D creations from Minecraft and Paint 3D
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