AI

• Android
• Google Play
• update
• AI
• Minecraft

Minecraft Pocket Edition gets biggest update yet w/ infinite worlds & much more

Minecraft Pocket Edition, the Android version of the popular Minecraft PC game, today is getting what developer Mojang says is the app’s biggest update yet. Version 0.9.0 introduces a number of new features carried over from the original game including infinite worlds, much improved caves, wolves, new items, and much, much more.

In addition, Mojang is bringing over new biomes from the PC version of the game with mesas, jungles, swamps and extreme hills, and you’ll also notice abandoned mineshafts, villages and “new feature generation, including lakes, vines and monster rooms.” That doesn’t even include a fraction of what’s actually included in today’s update. A full list of new features from new blocks to new and updated features for biomes, mobs, AI and feature generation is below.

The game also receives some welcomed UI tweaks in the update including a new “interaction” button that Mojang hopes will cut down on accidental sheep punches.

Infinite worlds!
Caves!
Loads of new blocks and items including Monster Eggs and huge mushroom blocks.
Wolves! Tame a loyal companion.
Loads of new flowers! So pretty.
New mobs, including the spooky endermen and less spooky Mooshrooms.
New biomes from the PC version, including mesas, jungles, swamps and extreme hills.
Abandoned mineshafts, villages, and many other cool places to explore.
A brand-new “interaction” button. Never accidentally punch a sheep again!
New feature generation, including lakes, vines and monster rooms.
Many bugs fixed, and possibly a few added.

The updated Minecraft Pocket Edition version 0.9.0 is available now on Google Play now.

The full huge list of what’s new via Mojang is below:

New features

• Unlimited worlds!
• New culling algorithm
• New culling of clouds
• Tile entities are saved differently
• New falling mechanics for gravel and sand
• New insta ticking of water and lava

New blocks

• Podzol
• Mycelium
• Huge mushroom blocks
• Cocoa
• End portal frame
• Double plants
• More stairs/slabs for new wood types
• New log types (savanna tree and dark oak)
• New leafs (savanna tree)
• Monster egg
• Stained clay
• Waterlily
• New flowers
• Red sand
• Hardened clay
• End stone
• Granite
• Diorite
• Andesite
• Emerald block
• Emerald ore
• New leveldb based saving format
• New entity handling
• New crafting screen
• Remade network code (mostly the same packages but new system).
• New interact button (to make the game easier for new players)

New mobs

• Slimes
• Endermen
• Wolves
• Mooshrooms
• Silverfish

New and updated biomes

• Deserts
• Extreme hills
• Forests
• Redwood taiga
• Roofed forests
• Frozen
• Jungle
• Savanna
• Mesa
• Mushroom island
• Taiga
• Deep ocean
• Swamps

New world feature generation

• Sand
• Boulders
• Ice patch
• Ice spike
• Spike
• Lake
• Double plants
• Ground bushes
• Fancy oaks
• Jungle tree
• Mega jungle tree
• Mega pine tree
• Savanna tree
• Swamp tree
• Huge mushroom
• Tallgrass
• Waterlily
• Vines
• Melons
• Pumpkin
• Dead bush
• Monster rooms
• Desert well
• Fallen logs
• Emerald ore

Tweaks to caves

• Lava at the bottom of caves
• Caves in desert and mesa
• Strongholds
• Villages
• Villagers
• Abandoned mine shafts
• Flat world generation
• Limited world generation
• “New” mob spawning
• Updated light generation
• Grass color for different biomes
• Foliage color for different biomes
• Water color for swamps

New AI

• Spiders
• New leaf rendering
• Added more spawn eggs in Creative Mode
• Added immersive mode for Android
• Added drip particles for water and lava
• Updated create world screen

Tweaks and bug fixes

• Correct name for stairs, slabs and spawn eggs
• Beds no longer gives full health in normal difficulty
• Smooth lighting added for:
• Beds
• Fences
• Walls
• Cobwebs
• Chests
• Leaves
• Smooth lighting removed for:
• Glowstone
• Glass
• Jack ‘o’ lanterns
• Improved performance of TNT
• Prettier clouds
• The fog is darker underground

Known Bugs

• The block highlight flickers (z-fights) when more than 10k blocks distant from spawn
• Changing the view distance while in a world might crash the game
• If players walk too far from each other in multiplayer, they can’t see each other

Known bugs requiring attention

• Multiplayer is a bit fragile. Please test it and report all issues to us!
• The LevelDB save format + upgrading of old maps. Please report any data corruption!
• Crashes in general – uncommon and random crashes might still happen

• Google
• Apple
• Facebook
• Larry Page
• Machine learning

Google uses artificial intelligence to boost efficiency of its data centers

Google has been using artificial intelligence for a wide range of tasks, ranging from delivering search results to speech recognition, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that Google’s latest AI product was figuring out how to improve the energy efficiency of the very servers used to do all that other stuff.

A Google blog entry spotted by Engadget describes how a Google engineer used his 20 percent time to apply machine learning to predict the real-time energy efficiency of its data centers. Google uses a measure known as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE): a ratio of total power used to power actually used for computing. In simple terms, if cooling used as much power as computing, the PUE would be 2. The closer to 1 Google can get, the more efficient the energy usage.

Google has already got its PUE down to 1.12 – about twice as efficient as a typical data center – but is using the AI project to try to further reduce the number. By using machine learning to predict the impact of variables like outside air temperature, Google can tweak the setup to minimize power usage.

The days of self-aware machines grow ever closer …