Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege now in open beta We are happy to confirm we will be launching the Rainbow Six Siege open beta at 12pm EST. We want to thank everyone who is participating in this beta. Your feedback helps us improve. For everyone who hasn't been able to play as yet, we apologize for the inconvenience and we appreciate your patience and understanding. Ubisoft Forum (beta download instructions)

A brief history of USB, what it replaced, and what has failed to replace it Like all technology, USB has evolved over time. Despite being a "Universal" Serial Bus, in its 18-or-so years on the market it has spawned multiple versions with different connection speeds and many, many types of cables. The USB Implementers Forum, the group of companies that oversees the standard, is fully cognizant of this problem... Ars Technica

Mp3.com founder launches Radio search service, talks copyright Michael Robertson clearly enjoys going up against corporations much larger than his, since his career consists of doing that across a wide range of different technology areas, from online music to operating systems. One of the most infamous was his digital music company Mp3.com, which triggered one of the highest-profile copyright infringement lawsuits of the 1990s and ended with a $53-million penalty against the company. Fortune

The end of the Internet dream Twenty years ago I attended my first Def Con. I believed in a free, open, reliable, interoperable Internet: a place where anyone can say anything, and anyone who wants to hear it can listen and respond. I believed in the Hacker Ethic: that information should be freely accessible and that computer technology was going to make the world a better place. I wanted to be a part of making these dreams  – the Dream of Internet Freedom  –  come true. Medium

'Li-fi 100 times faster than wi-fi' A new method of delivering data, which uses the visible spectrum rather than radio waves, has been tested in a working office. Li-fi can deliver internet access 100 times faster than traditional wi-fi, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second). It requires a light source, such as a standard LED bulb, an internet connection and a photo detector. It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn. BBC

Sony might have unlocked the PS4's 7th CPU core for developers In the past, many developers mentioned that they were allowed to use only six cores of the eight-core CPU of the PS4, with the last two used by the operating system of the console. Yet, Sony Computer Entertainment might have recently and quietly updated the software SDK (Software Development Kit) to enable developers to use the seventh core. DualShockers

Hardware DNA: Nintendo controller teardown - part 1 As a bunch of Nintendo nerds, we're really excited about this week's teardown, where we're looking at the evolution of Nintendo controllers since the very beginning. From the old-school NES controller with only 8 buttons to the game-changing N64 controller with the first joystick to the latest Wii U gamepad with a touch screen and a bajillion more features, we invite you to geek out with us as we explore the evolutions in both design and engineering across Nintendo's product line. Fictiv

Biomedical imaging at one-thousandth the cost MIT researchers have developed a biomedical imaging system that could ultimately replace a $100,000 piece of a lab equipment with components that cost just hundreds of dollars. The system uses a technique called fluorescence lifetime imaging, which has applications in DNA sequencing and cancer diagnosis, among other things. So the new work could have implications for both biological research and clinical practice. Phys.org

WarGames for real: How one 1983 exercise nearly triggered WWIII "Let's play Global Thermonuclear War."Thirty-two years ago, just months after the release of the movie WarGames, the world came the closest it ever has to nuclear Armageddon. In the movie version of a global near-death experience, a teenage hacker messing around with an artificial intelligence program that just happened to control the American nuclear missile force unleashes chaos. Ars Technica

TV, mobile and the living room The tech industry has wanted to get to the TV for decades. For a long time it was widely assumed that PCs were only a transitional device and the normal consumer computing experience and 'interactive media' experience would happen on the TV, with a 'ten foot' user interface, powered by the 'information superhighway'. TV would become 'interactive TV, and that would be a big part of how 'computing' came to normal people. Benedict Evans

How to fix everything It happened suddenly, like most of these stories do. My alarm went off. I kicked my leg out as I jolted awake, making solid contact with my new laptop, which was innocently lying at the foot of my hotel bed for some reason. It landed on a chair leg; the crash was loud. The aluminum next to the Apple logo was visibly, obviously dented. I flipped it open and was greeted with a large blob of dead pixels radiating outward from the dent. Vice

Keith Stuart on AI, acting and the weird future of open-world games Julian Togelius has an idea about where open-world games are going. Let's call it the infinite world theory. In his version of the future, titles like Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto will have no set missions or narrative arcs, and no pre-defined landscapes. Instead, the game engine will use procedural generation, artificial intelligence and creative computing techniques to dynamically build environments and experiences to suit every individual player. Eurogamer

Swarm robotics breakthrough brings pheromone communication to AI Computer scientists at the University of Lincoln have invented a reliable, low-cost system which replicates in robots the pheromone-based communication behind insect swarms. Using off-the-shelf equipment including an LCD screen and a USB camera, the team has proposed what they call COS-phi, or Communication System via Pheromone. The artificial pheromone trails are traced visually onto the screen. The Stack

IP leak affecting VPN providers with port forwarding We have discovered a vulnerability in a number of providers that allows an attacker to expose the real IP address of a victim. "Port Fail" affects VPN providers that offer port forwarding and have no protection against this specific attack. Perfect Privacy users are protected from this attack. This IP leak affects all users: The victim does not need to use port forwarding, only the attacker has to set it up. Perfect Privacy

The whales of microtransactions, and the elephant in the room Microtransactions are a popular monetization model in tech: apps, games and online services are marketed as "free", but once you start using the product, you must make small, in-app purchases to access more content. These microtransactions can be anything from buying replays for Snapchat, to boosts in Candy Crush to speed up your progress. Model View Culture

26 Tech documentaries worth watching I'm a big fan of documentaries and some of my favorites involve technology and how they affect our everyday lives. Here are some of the more interesting ones that I've come across. Medium