Instagram kills newly launched ‘Being’ app, which saw 50K downloads its first week

In case there was any doubt where Instagram was drawing the line when it came to its shutdown of third-party feed reading apps, it appears that its decision to revoke API access doesn’t just extend to those that offer an alternative means of browsing the photo-sharing service. It also reaches apps that offer an expansion of what you can do with Instagram – for example, the recently launched app Being, which let you peer into another user’s Instagram for the purpose of discovery, has already been killed off.
The app launched in February to a bit of press coverage, including here on TechCrunch, as well as on The Verge, Re/code, Business Insider, The Next Web, Motherboard and New York Magazine. The well-designed app’s concept was simple – it allowed you to browse Instagram as anyone, whether a pop star, celebrity, techie, politician, tastemaker, or even a brand. You could also use the app to view a friend’s Instagram feed, which, in reality, was more interesting than “being Taylor Swift” on Instagram, for example.
But the app was plagued with problems as soon as it debuted. Its servers almost immediately crashed, initially due to Amazon Web Services performance issues. Then, as the app became featured on the iTunes App Store and by non-tech news media sites like BuzzFeed, Perez Hilton and even Teen Vogue, it struggled under the influx of new users.

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Play your Steam first-person shooters in full virtual reality with MyDream Swift

As the launch dates of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive virtual reality headsets approach, so does the release of a ton of awesome VR gaming content. To gamers with full Steam libraries however, it’s kind of a shame that once they put the headset on, most of their favorite content is no longer available to enjoy.
MyDream Swift is looking to bring old Steam content into the next generation of gaming with its VR conversion software that brings experiences like Battlefield and Borderlands into immersive virtual reality.
You can try any DX9 or DX11 game (i.e. most popular games) with the software, but it’s definitely optimized for first-person shooter-style POV experiences. For the non-FPS titles that feel a bit wonky in VR due to camera perspectives, the app also has a cinema mode that gives you a “near distant” virtual screen setup to view and dive into familiar titles within the VR headset.
The team didn’t set out to build a piece of software like Swift, initially they were just looking to convert their own game MyDream, a creative community game that lets players build their own 3D worlds, into a virtual reality experience.
The Swift UI isn’t all that flashy, but it’s about as simple as it gets. Check a box for “Cinema mode,” select your title and you’re good-to-go. Looking to dive into full VR for a first-person game? Just check “AutoVR” and “first-person camera controls,” launch the game and get to playing.
The team says that games convert with lossless quality and maintain 90hz render times so everything should look smooth, though Swift notably foregoes stereoscopic rendering for the sake of performance. I was given a remote demo of the software, but when it comes to VR you really have to try it in-person to see how experiences stack up. MyDream understands this as well and told me that they’ll be offering demos at VRDC in San Francisco this week to anyone who wants to take the software for a whirl.
MyDream Swift is available for pre-order now for $29.99 and is available for download on March 28. The $30 buy also includes MyDream VR, the company’s latest iteration of its namesake gaming title.

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Microsoft is using Minecraft to develop artificial intelligence tech for the real world

Yet more proof that Minecraft is more than just a game comes our way today. Microsoft already has plans to use the platform, which it bought for $2.5 billion, to help kids learn and for virtual reality, and now we can add artificial intelligence development to that list, too.
Today, Microsoft announced a project that enables artificial intelligence researchers to tap into the hit title to sculpt and develop their tech. AIX is a new software development platform that researchers can use to develop ‘agents’ — AI-powered characters — which roam Minecraft worlds. The idea is to equip them with the smarts to behave like a regular player. So that includes basic commands, such as climbing up a hill, and more complicated requirements like navigating varied terrain, building out landscapes and just surviving from the game’s vicious zombies.
Katja Hofmann, who leads the project, explained that Minecraft’s openness and creativity present larger opportunities to explore and develop AI than currently exist. That’s not unlike the reasons why Google-owned DeepMind has focused on Go, having just defeated a legendary human champion of the Asian strategy game over a five game series.
“Minecraft is the perfect platform for this kind of research because it’s this very open world,” Hofmann said. “You can do survival mode, you can do ‘build battles’ with your friends, you can do courses, you can implement our own games. This is really exciting for artificial intelligence because it allows us to create games that stretch beyond current abilities.”
AIX and Minecraft isn’t just about developing AI agents to exist in the game, Hofmann said the goal is to train the technology to learn from itself — just as DeepMind’s AI technology does when it plays Go.
And, trivial though it may sound to non-players, Minecraft has all the ingredients to train AI agents and technology for the real world.
“Building a robot and trying to teach it to climb a real hill is costly and impractical; unlike in Minecraft, you’d have to repair or replace the robot with another costly machine each time it fell into a river,” Microsoft explained in a blog post.
Beyond just AI researchers and top boffins, Microsoft aims to bring AI and IT to new audiences. The company told the BBC that it wants to encourage “people of all skills and ages to get involved.” Knowing how much kids love Minecraft, this could be a compelling way to get young people learning while having fun at the same time.
Microsoft has already invited a handful of members of the academic community to test AIX and, with plans to make the software available via an open-source license this summer, anyone will be able to access it soon.

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