TechStory: gaming trends that defined the past 10 years
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The digital gaming industry is just over 50 years old and has come a long way since its launch in the 60s. It’s hard to keep track of the many different trends popping up before our eyes these past few years. The innovations that looked fascinating in the early 2010s are now considered old school.
It’s funny how we were so eager to unbox the Playstation 4 console that our parents promised us for Christmas during the 2013 winter holiday season. Today’s kids will be more familiar with online gaming with FanDuel and live streaming gaming services than with some of the video console games we grew up playing. How fast the times have changed!
Yes, we know that change is bound to occur in any growing industry. But never in a million years could we have imagined this level of innovation.
Although big gaming franchises, like Xbox and Playstation, are still the talk of the town today. Their products and offerings have evolved so much over the past ten years.
As this decade is relatively new, it’s good we take a trip down memory lane, revisiting some of the developments and trends that shaped the gaming industry in the past decade:
Twitch
Who still walks into the mall to spectate a video game competition today? Not so many people.
Many gamers know Twitch to be the most popular video gaming live stream service. But only a few people know that this platform has been around for quite a while. It launched in June 2011 and was originally marketed as a spin-off to the popular streaming platform Justin.tv.
Twitch’s popularity has surged since it began focusing on video game live streams and is currently the go-to platform for e-sports competitions. It’s known for broadcasting competitive video games like the battle royals shooter and League of Legends. Many of the biggest YouTube game enthusiasts, like RDCWorld1 and Dontai, have garnered a large following on Twitch. Its scope has since expanded beyond video games to entertainment, sports, and lifestyle content.
Twitch was purchased by tech juggernaut Amazon in 2015 for a staggering $1 billion. On average, about 15 million active users visit the platform daily.
Gaming Subscription
Gone are the days when you had to download a game on your console or wait for an update!
We’ve seen TV and Music subscription services reach popularity in the past decade, and the same can be said about gaming subscriptions. Tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon have taken a clue from services like Netflix and Spotify.
Today, we have a lot of gaming subscription offerings in the market, a big boost to this industry. Services like EA Access, Xbox Game Pass, Playstation Now, Twitch Prime, and Apple Music have all proven to be hugely successful, and the market has become very competitive in recent times.
Many game genres available make gaming subscriptions more utilizable, and it’s good news for both tech companies and game lovers. Gaming subscription is bound to take modern-day gaming to a whole new level.
Mobile Gaming
Do you remember playing Snake Xenzia on your Nokia cellphone? Yes, mobile games have been around for that long. However, the iOS App Store launch in mid-2008 made mobile gaming a much more popular trend.
Apple took it up a notch when it introduced in-app purchases in 2009. Since then, we’ve seen a steep increase in mobile game development and revenue for these companies.
In 2019, Nintendo scored one of its biggest mobile game launches of all time, with Call of Duty racking up more than 148 million first-month downloads and 270 million downloads by the end of the year.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings became the highest-earning mobile video game in 2020, grossing over $2.5 billion worldwide. Since its launch on Android and iOS, it has ranked one of the most downloaded mobile games on these app stores. Today, Honor of Kings has more than 100 million daily active players and is currently mainland China’s most trending MOBA game.
Conclusion
Modern-day gaming has evolved into a huge market and will continue to grow bigger. We have live-streaming platforms, gaming subscription services, and the advent of portable consoles to thank for making video games easily accessible to everyone.
Modern-day gaming can only get better from here, and so we keep our fingers crossed.
Apple named a Hungarian company Mac App of the Year
Apple has recently revealed the 2021 App Store Award winners, recognizing the 15 best apps and games for their outstanding quality, innovative technology, creative design, and positive cultural impact.
This year, Craft – Docs and Notes Editor, a fast-growing writing app and modern productivity tool, has been selected as Mac App of the Year at Apple’s App Store Best of 2021 Awards. The Hungarian software allows users to create beautiful documents, take structured and linked notes, share their content, and creatively and efficiently edit their documents even offline.
“We’ve even heard from people who facilitated Dungeons & Dragons games with the app,”
Dániel Korpai, Craft design lead, told Apple. The team’s vision is to
develop the “new Word or Excel” for the generations that have socialised on the smartphone and are now entering the job market.
This spring, Craft closed an $ 8 million investment round with investors such as Creandum, the previous investor of Bolt and Spotify.
Unusual award ceremony
Craft CEO and Founder, Bálint Orosz received the award in a rather unique way. A delivery man from Amsterdam brought a box to Craft’s Budapest hub, with a label saying “Do not open”. The man said that he was only allowed to hand over the package directly and exclusively to Bálint Orosz, so the CEO had to leave his meeting. After this “interlude”,
Apple invited the team – and, as it was later revealed, all the 2021 App Store Award winners – to a video conference, where they could open the boxes together,
Bálint Orosz told Forbes. The winners also had the opportunity to talk with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, for a few minutes.
2021 App Store Award winners
“The developers who won App Store Awards in 2021 harnessed their own drive and vision to deliver the best apps and games of the year − sparking the creativity and passion of millions of users around the world. From self-taught indie coders to inspiring leaders building global businesses, these standout developers innovated with Apple technology, with many helping to foster the profound sense of togetherness we needed this year,” said Tim Cook.
In 2021, Toca Life World, from Toca Boca was selected iPhone App of the Year; LumaFusion, from LumaTouch became the iPad App of the Year; the title of Apple TV App of the Year was awarded to DAZN, from DAZN Group and Carrot Weather, from Grailr was selected Apple Watch App of the Year. The Mac Game of the Year was Myst, from Cyan and “League of Legends: Wild Rift,” from Riot Games became the iPhone Game of the Year.
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Palkovics highlights judiciary digitalisation at international conference
Hungary has “done well” compared with other European Union member states in terms of digitalising its judicial procedures, Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics told the Digital Public Administration Summit held in Budapest on Tuesday.
Palkovics said digitalisation became inevitable amid the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic as a means to making the judicial system “accessible and transparent in the interest of protecting citizens and ensuring legal predictability”.
“Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are essential tools for ensuring the seamless operations of the judiciary,” the minister said.
According to the European Commission’s 2021 EU Justice Scoreboard, the community’s legal services became more accessible and more effective during the pandemic due to digital developments, he said.
Palkovics added that making court rulings available online increased transparency and helped clients better understand the legal environment, while it also increased consistency of court practices and data security. Citing the Scoreboard, he said that Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia offered the broadest access to court decisions online.
Hungarian fintechs push country’s digital payment transformation
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Despite the economic challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the fintech (financial technology) sector in Hungary has seen rapid and dynamic development over the last couple of years. In fact, the need for increased digital interaction with customers due to infection control protocols has driven fintech growth worldwide, and Hungary is no exception.
A snapshot of the current environment reveals 130 companies, both Hungarian and foreign owned, that have fintech at the center of their operations. Around a fifth of these businesses specialize in payment services, which is indicative of a shift away from a cash-based economy. Until as recently as 2018, Hungary lagged significantly behind the EU average for digital transactions.
Holding on to the cash
According to numerous studies conducted by the Hungarian National Bank (MNB), citizens of this country have been more reluctant to move away from cash payments than their EU neighbors. Unsurprisingly, there are several factors at play affecting how payments are made within a population. Transaction costs, access to services, consumer preferences, and the way that citizens receive payments all have a role.
In 2018 the MNB found that while 84% of EU citizens receive their income electronically, this number was only 71% in Hungary, with 21% getting all or most of their income in cash. Retailers were also slow to accept electronic payments, with 70% still not accepting cards in 2016. Between 2012 and 2017, the value of cash in circulation grew from HUF 2,670 billion to 5,040 billion.
This was reflected in how the Hungarian population preferred to pay for goods and services – the same 2018 study found that cash was still the favorite payment method for 46% of survey respondents. In the demographic groups of the under 30s and the over 60s, this preference was even stronger. Those with lower levels of household income and education also tended to favor cash, partly because these groups are more likely to receive their income in cash.
The fintech revolution
The rapid growth of the fintech industry in Hungary has several drivers, including a concerted effort by the MNB to promote and accelerate it. This includes the launch of the MNB Innovation Hub, a networking resource for those working or interested in the sector. The bank has also created a ‘regulatory sandbox’, designed to expedite the testing of innovations and regulatory solutions.
Additionally, the MNB has created a chat service for citizens who have queries regarding fintech, and issued guidelines for banks on digitalization. At the start of 2020 the Hungarian Fintech Association (MAFISZ) was established, with a goal of supporting and strengthening the sector from startups to mature enterprises. Several of the largest Hungarian banks have also gotten in on the action, creating incubation programs for fintech startups, including mentoring and funding. All these actions and more have led to a significantly improved environment in which home-grown fintech can thrive. Between 2015 and 2020, the number of people employed in fintech in Hungary doubled.
Fintech startups making waves in Hungary
The recent strengthening of support for fintech has assisted many startups towards success, including many that were founded years before the interventions previously mentioned came into play. In 2021 the Hungarian fintech company that received the most funding was Barion, a payment gateway provider for both customers and merchants which facilitates digital and card transactions. Founded in 2015, Barion has grown rapidly thanks to multiple international investors and today is at the forefront of Hungary’s domestic fintech sector. It is similar to a fast payment as Sofort in Germany, which is used for all kinds of transactions – from online casinos to large shopping items.
Barion is just one of the fintech companies featured in the publication HunFintech 20/20 from the Fintech Group, which showcases the most promising Hungarian fintech companies on their radar. Voted on by highly regarded members of the industry, including country directors for Mastercard and Microsoft, the publication is a good indicator of what’s hot in the sector. One of the selection criteria for inclusion is that the service offered has a cash-reducing effect.
SimplePay is another payments fintech enterprise founded in 2013. The company provides a number of integrated payment solutions including QR code and mobile payments, as well as specialized services such as parking payments and ticket booking services. Taking a more specialized approach is Rollet, providing contactless access and payment for public car parks around the country.
Besides digital payments, there are many small and medium sized enterprises offering innovative fintech services. Take for example Salarify, an app that allows employees to access a part of their salary before payday. The accessed funds are then automatically deducted from the next paycheck. These are just a few of the many promising young companies showcased in the report.
Fintech and the future
The Hungarian economy is currently undergoing a period of rapid growth, and fintech is central to the country’s business environment. As we have seen, the authorities are making significant efforts to promote and support the sector, and to great effect. According to the MAFISZ website, their members serve more than 2.5 million end users and assist in making their lives easier and more cost-effective.
Since most of the profit generated from MAFISZ members comes from business-to-business sales, the group also points out that most customers use these services within the framework of a traditional financial institution, thus reducing concerns over consumer protection. The digitization of payments and other financial services also contributes positively towards environmental protection, as fewer physical resources are needed.
Every effort is being made to ease the transition to a largely cash-free economy, and now that people have more services and better access it seems inevitable that Hungary will become more in line with its European neighbors. More recent surveys suggest that the proportion of those who prefer to always use cash has declined from 46% to 30%, much of which is undoubtedly due to an improvement in both local and foreign fintech services.
It will be some years until the citizens of Hungary are ready to give up cash, and many doubt the wisdom of such a move in any event. As the fintech sector continues to grow, international cooperation between Hungary and the biggest players in fintech – China and the US – will be imperative.
Hungarian-made high-tech buses may conquer the roads in the future — PHOTOS
Within 10 years, there may be Hungarian-made high-tech buses in Hungary. Minister of Innovation and Technology László Palkovics presented a domestically developed articulated bus. The new buses are less harmful to the environment.
Buses in Hungary
“There are currently about 8,500 buses in operation in Hungary. Their average age is over 14. However, the goal is to bring this under 10 years,” said Palkovics, Minister of Innovation and Technology.
Hungary has a modern bus development and production capacity.
In addition, outstanding expertise in Hungary helps the production of buses. “The domestically developed and manufactured Credobus Econell 18 Next articulated bus is a vehicle built on an ultra-light chassis. It is the most fuel-efficient bus, and it has the lowest carbon-dioxide emission in the category,” bus manufacturer Kravtex Kft.’s managing director István Krankovics stated.
Palkovics added that the traditional power train is no longer modern. It is important to reduce emissions from vehicles.
Hungarian industry is high-tech
The Minister also mentioned that the Hungarian economy is constantly developing. Hungarian industry is high-tech. In other words, the automotive industry is outstanding in Hungary. Palkovics recalled a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a year ago. The IMF rated the industrial structure of different countries. The main aspects were, for instance, high-tech production capacity and high-tech products.
Hungarian industry has received a rating just as good as Germany or Denmark.
With this, our country is at the top of the list. In connection with the new bus, we can now say that there is a Hungarian-made articulated bus once again. Kravtex Kft. is the largest domestic transport service provider. Recently, they handed over the last buses of a deal for 420 vehicles to Volánbus, writes index.hu.
The name of the new vehicle is Econell 18 Next. It weighs 3 tonnes, meaning it is 15 per cent lighter than buses of similar size and capacity. As a result, the bus consumes less fuel and is more environmentally friendly. Kravtex has about 2,400 buses at Volánbusz, writes hellomagyar.hu. In conclusion, soon, only modern Hungarian-made buses can run in Hungary.
Palkovics László innovációs és technológiai miniszter (b) és Krankovics István, a Kravtex Kft. ügyvezetõ igazgatója a Credobus Econell 18 Next hazai fejlesztésû csuklós autóbusz bemutatóján Budapesten 2021. október 14-én.
MTI/Soós Lajos
A Credobus Econell 18 Next hazai fejlesztésû csuklós autóbusz a bemutatón, Budapesten 2021. október 14-én.
MTI/Soós Lajos
A Credobus Econell 18 Next hazai fejlesztésû csuklós autóbusz a bemutatón, Budapesten 2021. október 14-én.
MTI/Soós Lajos
A Credobus Econell 18 Next hazai fejlesztésû csuklós autóbusz a bemutatón, Budapesten 2021. október 14-én.
MTI/Soós Lajos
Hungary at world’s biggest intelligent transport systems event for first time
Hungary is present for the first time at the world’s largest event dedicated to intelligent transport systems, with a national stand at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg running from Oct. 11 to 15, the minister of innovation and technology said on Tuesday.
László Palkovics told MTI by phone that the national stand presents several new Hungarian smart mobility developments, including a project which creates a “digital twin” for any given transport situation thanks to cooperation between the ZalaZONE Vehicle Test Track, university research projects based on the ZalaZONE test track and the Hungarian public road company Magyar Kozut Nonprofit.
Whichever participant, including vehicle or person, wants to respond to a transport situation, the digital replica allows them to interfere in the process and “present a proper reaction”, he added.
Palkovics said the development project had attracted considerable interest.
The project implemented under the arrangements of Austrian-Hungarian research cooperation is up and running with the installation of the system on the M76 motorway, he said.
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Romanian burglars steal €28,500 in tech devices from large Budapest store – VIDEO
During the early hours of October 1, perpetrators have broke into one of the largest electronic stores and showroom in Budapest and have stolen a substantial amount of mobile phones and laptops.
According to Police.hu, the group of perpetrators have committed burglary during the early hours of Saturday and have managed to steal electronic devices with a total
value worth of 10 million forints (€ 28,500) within just one and a half minutes. These included mobile phones, laptops and tablet, the police reported.
The burglars broke into the store by kicking down the closed entrance doors and while wearing a mask they then proceeded to go into the store one after the other in a fashion that seems to have been well premediated before.
You can also see the footage of the security cameras as the group systematically breaks the sliding doors and immediately go for the area where these devices are displayed.
Be careful! – Fake cop swindles money from foreign couple in Budapest
They must have been at the store before and planned around to target this area specifically. It was ideal for the thieves as it was close to the entrance, the devices were small and some phones that was displayed there were flagship phones, which have a very high price.
Thanks to the cooperation to the police forces in Hungary, the thieves were caught at the Csanádpalota-Nagylak border control with the help of the Romanian authorities, the official site says.
When the authorities stopped them they had found a large amount of mobile phones some with the safety cords and alarms still attached to the devices.
According to Index, the Budapest Police Headquarters have initiated proceedings against five Romanian citizens on the basis of a well-founded suspicion of committing theft.
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Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum held in Budapest
The superiority of intelligence services and resulting ability for fast action is crucial for democratic states as opposed to non-democratic countries and terrorist organisations, House Speaker László Kövér told a Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum held in Budapest on Monday.
Security has become a primary factor in terms of competitiveness in all areas of life, Kövér said in his address in Parliament, and mentioned recent developments in Afghanistan, which showed that “it could be a matter of life and death if the intelligence services make mistakes or deliver false information to decision makers”. Military, financial, or technological advantages are not enough if they are not coupled with better intelligence for political decision making or if politicians fail to appropriately use the information received, he argued.
Former US congressman Robert Pittenger, the founder and president of the Forum, said that
the United States considered international cooperation of countries of paramount importance, stressing that working together could make the intelligence services much more effective.
Marc Dillard, Charge d’Affaires of the US embassy in Budapest, said it was important that the economic advantages of new technologies should be exploited, and warned that security should not be compromised for short-term economic advantages.
Hungary’s intelligence services will make every effort to protect the country against cyber-attacks and trace every possible threat, the foreign minister told, details HERE.
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Rollout of eye-scan test for coronavirus targeted
A Munich-based company hopes to help usher in a new era of coronavirus testing with an eye scan that, it says, takes just three minutes to identify carriers of the disease and has a hit rate of 95%.
Semic RF has developed its scanning app with colleagues in the United States and, pending regulatory approval, hopes to start rolling it out there by the end of next month, says its managing director, Wolfgang Gruber.
It uses a photo of the eye taken with a smartphone, and identifies the virus by means of a symptomatic inflammation called “pink eye”.
“We managed to isolate COVID-19 from over two million different shades of pink,” Gruber told Reuters.
He says the app, already tested on over 70,000 individuals, can process up to a million scans per second and the option to expand that capacity further – potentially allowing crowds back into mass-attendance events like concerts and football matches.
“You take your app, take a picture of both eyes, send it for evaluation, and then you can have the evaluated result stored as a QR code on the tested person’s smartphone,” Gruber added.
The app is initially being targeted at companies and commercial users, at a cost of 480 euros ($570) per month, with a later rollout to private individuals planned.
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How new tech is being used in Hungary
The Hungarian Government has been making targeted strides in positioning the nation as a European leader in technology. In fact, in 2019, the IMF ranked Hungary as joint tech leaders in Europe, alongside Germany. So, how is the country revolutionising and utilising technologies for the better of the economy? Here are five ways Hungary is spearheading tech today.
#1: Self-Driving Vehicles
Hungary is one of the most advanced countries when it comes to testing and implementing self-driving cars. The Zalazone test track was used to test their self-driving vehicles, and then testing was transferred to real-world traffic four years ago with other self-driving cars. Today things are heating up even more with plans to create cars that can communicate with the road via another technology we’ll discuss later – 5G. The immediate step is to start mixing self-driving and manually operated vehicles to see how they perform together.
#2: Live Casino Games
Hungary, especially Budapest, is one of the leading casino hotspots in Europe. People flock from all around the world to enjoy Hungarian casinos and the renowned nightlife. But Hungarians are not just about bricks and mortar casinos. There is an upward trend in the number of players using online casinos specifically for live dealer games. Thanks to sophisticated cameras, software and superfast 5G technology, real casinos are able to stream games from the casino floor, or a studio to websites to players can entertain themselves with roulette, blackjack and more from the comfort of home.
#3: High-Speed Rail Network
Efficient and easy methods of transport allow cities and countries to flourish, so it is no surprise that Hungary and Poland are applying to create a Budapest to Warsaw high-speed rail network. The project will be implemented by engineering experts in Hungary who have developed technologies to make high-speed rail possible and comparable to those in Asia. There are plenty of economic and tourism benefits that will come from the project, which will be funded and decided on by the European Commission.
#4: SignAll
SignAll is a Budapest-based business that is changing the game for people with hearing difficulties. Through their programming and AI leverage, they have created a platform to translate different sign languages much easier. They use tech to automatically translate sign language from videos, and they can do it in real-time for conferences, education and meetings.
#5: The Pureco Group
The Pureco Group was started by a Hungarian company and provide wastewater treating solutions. Their work has helped countless organisations and companies, including Budapest Zoo and Mercedes. And now, the company will be assisting Ghanaian communities to treat wastewater. Currently, only 10% of sewage in Ghana is appropriately treated, and the technologies developed by The Pureco Group will go a long way to improving the environment and health in the region.
Hungary-based company develops COVID passport for smartphones
When an airline, a boat tour company, and even a sports event organiser wants to ensure that service users do not get infected with the coronavirus, it is not an easy task. The so-called “Covid passports” offer a solution to this problem, and one Hungarian company developed a digital passport that can be easily installed on smartphones. TrustOne is an application that can be used to keep track of who had negative COVID-19 tests reliably, and it is now even capable of storing data about vaccinations.
According to Hvg, passengers and guests must be tested within a specified time before the start of the service, and the results of the tests must be checked upon entry. This requires ensuring both that the service users are real (the person using the service is the one who was tested) and the test is authentic (it is not a fake result), Te-Food highlighted.
Originally, this Hungary-based company developed a platform to trace food shipments. Still, now they have come up with a solution that helps private companies and government agencies register and administrate people who have passed the coronavirus test.
TrustOne supports passenger and guest registration, the booking of test dates and even prepayment, the digitalisation of the sampling, managing all communications among different laboratory systems, the automatic transmission of test results, and the verification of compliance with testing at the start of the service – the description reads.
The company’s announcement reveals that Eurofins, one of the world’s largest test laboratory network operators, supports the product and has been using it since last Summer to manage regular testings for Formula 1 and MotoGP teams and local workers. The world’s second-largest ocean-liner company, the Royal Caribbean, has been using it in Singapore since December on the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship, departing every 3-4 days, to manage and register the tests of its few thousand passengers. Those entering the UK can use it to shorten mandatory quarantine.
In Germany, several companies have introduced it by private health care providers for regular testing of corporate employees. The Emirates and Etihad airlines are currently trying it out on passengers in five countries.
In Slovakia, where they use extensive antigen rapid testing every week, it is utilised in three cities (Nyitra, Prešov, Trnava) for full testing of the population – the developers said. As many regions can only be entered with a recent negative coronavirus test, the local police in Nitra also use TrustOne to check the test results of those who want to enter. The Jaguar Land Rover plant in Slovakia also joined the program by testing their employees.
Read about the Hungarian smart parking system in use in China HERE. If you are an Apple user, this Hungarian invention might be just the right gadget for you.
Based on customer need and feedback, TrustOne was recently updated to handle vaccination data as well.
“As achieving herd immunity depends on many, partly unknown conditions, we believe that in 2021, the combined management and control of adequate testing and vaccination results will be key for the relaunching the travel, hospitality and entertainment industries,” – Márton Vén, Co-founder of TrustOne says.
There is currently a huge international demand for managing test results. However, there are relatively only a few options on the market that provides a solution. The right solution must be both flexible and secure at the same time. TrustOne announced that their upcoming updates will include support for European airports, drive-thru test sites in the US and will also offer support for home testing.
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Hungary became the only member state in the EU to tax international digital corporations
Hungary has become the only member state in the European Union to tax international digital corporations, after the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, both ruled in favour of the relevant law, a government official said on Monday.
Norbert Izer, the state secretary for tax affairs, told Wednesday’s Magyar Nemzet that Hungary passed a law in 2014 making online advertisements subject to taxation if they are in Hungarian or placed on Hungarian sites. Under the law, the tax must be paid by the person or organisation managing the ad space, Izer said.
A 2017 amendment to the law allows the Hungarian tax and customs authority to impose estimated taxes on online advertisements even if the company has not filed tax returns, and to impose fines should the managing company fail to declare such cases, Izer said.
In one such case, NAV imposed fines totalling at one billion forints (EUR 2.8m) on Google.
The tech giant turned to the Hungarian labour and administration court, and the court in turn asked for an interpretation of relevant EU laws from the CJEU. In a ruling in early 2020, the European court said the regulations making declaration mandatory and fining defaulters were in line with EU law. The court raised objections only against the method of calculating the fines, Izer said.
Tech giants cannot shirk Hungarian regulations and will have to pay taxes if the conditions apply to them, Izer said.
Izer also noted that similar attempts to tax tech giants had been prepared in the EU before. In 2018, the European Commission prepared a proposal on revenue-based special taxes, but finalisation was put on hold in 2019, he noted.
Similar measures were planned or introduced in other member states too, but “were all suspended partly because of pressure from the United States, and partly because of a regulation being drafted in the OECD.”
Steps in the latter are expected this summer, Izer said.
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Hungarian man develops WWII game about the Siege of Budapest by himself – VIDEO
WWII has always been a historical event inspiring many video games, movies and books alike, but not that many of them revolved around Hungary, especially not the Siege of Budapest. This will change now.
According to Esport 1, Hungarian gamers have been lobbying for an Assassin’s Creed game – which are famous for rethinking historical events and depicting their locations quite accurately and beautifully – that is set in Hungary, especially around the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Although that might never happen, an ambitious Hungarian man started to develop a WWII videogame all by himself.
The developer nicknamed Artur embarked upon an ambitious plan back in 2011.
He wants to develop a full-fledged game showing the events that took place during the 1944-45 Siege of Budapest. His tireless work is unbelievable. Since 2018, he has been posting updates about the game on his Facebook page and recently, he published the first video showing one of the maps of the game.
According to Leet, the game should receive more attention than it gets as it is extremely rich in detail, and a lot of research went into making the game as historically accurate as possible. In another project, gamers rebuilt Budapest, Hungary’s capital in Minecraft.
Artur designed the game around one of the darkest and most trying times the Hungarian capital has faced in its history. He utilises the Unreal Engine to resurrect the historical Budapest as it was over 76 years ago.
Aside from being extremely accurate, it is also beautiful, especially if you consider that it is the tireless work of a single developer.
The video he recently shared is supposed to be the first part of a series, a developer diary to be more precise. In this particular video, he shows one of the game’s maps, the Népszínháznegyed (Folk theatre district). In the video, you can also see
many characteristic buildings and streets, such as the Magyar Művelődés Háza, which is now the Erkel Theatre, the former Tisza Kálmán square, which is the II. János Pál pápa square today, and the Bezerédj street.
If you are interested in how the game’s development is going, you can join the game’s dedicated Facebook page where you can see more pictures, or subscribe to the channel on which he posted the video. We hope that the game will be ready soon and more people will know about this historical period of Hungary and the hardships of WWII in general.
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Indonesian investment biggest Hungarian tech export so far, says Minister Szijjártó
A 103 billion forint (EUR 287m) electronic road toll system to be built in Indonesia by Hungarian company Roatex will be Hungary’s biggest technology export so far, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Szijjártó told a press conference that the project, expected to be completed by 2023, was a “milestone” in Hungary’s foreign economic strategy. He said that 70 percent of the “technology and skills” for the project would be Hungarian.
Indonesia has 2,500 kms of highways, and this is expected to rise to 4,800kms, he added.
He said Indonesia was an important element of Hungary’s strategy of opening up to the East which started 11 years ago. The minister added that there were no unresolved issues to burden bilateral relations.
Talks are under way concerning a 50 million dollar subsidised loan programme under which Hungarian companies would build a meteorological and climate monitoring system in Indonesia, the minister said.
Szijjártó noted that Hungary offered scholarships to Indonesian students, adding that 1,200 were interested in studying at Hungarian universities and colleges this year. Currently 13 Hungarian universities are in cooperation with 23 Indonesian institutions, he said, adding that in view of high demand the Hungarian government was ready to increase the number of scholarships offered.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi noted two agreements were signed during the talks, one aimed at stepping up diplomatic capacities, and another designed to facilitate a 500 million dollar Indonesia-Hungary investment fund to finance future developments, including digitisation and public infrastructure projects.
She said bilateral trade turnover was 212 million dollars in 2020, up 13 percent from the previous year.
The two ministers also agreed that their countries would make bilateral trade more balanced and sustainable in the long run, to which end a central warehouse for Indonesian products would be set up in Budapest.
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NASA to support cutting-edge Hungarian development – PHOTOS
The Puli is probably one of the most well-known and intelligent Hungarian dog breeds, but it is also the name of a Hungarian space project, the Puli Space Technologies, and they have managed to achieve what only a few could. Since their foundation, the Puli Space Project has performed well in several international competitions and recently achieved first place in NASA’s “Honey, I shrunk the NASA payload” challenge.
According to 24, the challenge of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s “Honey, I shrunk the NASA payload” was to design easily realisable, small-scale, and light-weight lunar measuring and monitoring devices that could be deployed on small robots the size of a shoebox. To take on this challenge, Puli Space Technologies developed a device that could help detect water ice on the Moon.
Puli Space Technologies’ Puli Lunar Water Snooper won first place in the category of Lunar Resource Potential and was awarded $30,000 for their idea and hard work.
This is not everything, however, as in the second instalment of the challenge, creatively named “Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload Challenge, the Sequel”,
the relatively small group of Hungarian scientists and engineers received a whopping $225,000 budget and direct support from NASA
by reviewing the team project and providing insight or expertise if needed. NASA ended up increasing the prize pool by and additional $65,000 to support a fourth project.
Only the winners of the first challenge could partake in the second competition and, in the end, ten teams submitted their detailed project plan, including estimated budget costs, milestones, real-life tests, and risk assessment. The four winners have 12 months to execute their project plans, and they must deliver at least three identical and operational working prototypes.
“We have received tremendous recognition from the world’s leading space agency; we are very happy and proud. We have achieved this with incredible collective effort, and after ten years of struggling, we feel we deserve the success,” said Tibor Pacher, CEO and Founder of Puli Space Technologies.
He is happy that they have managed to win over excellent domestic partners and that they have a strong team to take on the task. He believes that by working together, Hungary could join the very narrow group of countries that have reached a celestial body. He also quoted “the Greatest Hungarian”, István Széchenyi: “Egynek minden nehéz, soknak semmi sem lehetetlen” (Everything is difficult for one, nothing is impossible for many).
After the recent success of the Chinese Chang’e-5 lunar expedition, in addition to Indian, Russian, and Japanese expeditions, NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program will bring landing units developed by private companies onto Earth’s celestial companion. The probes of Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic in 2021 – the latter of which will transport the device of Puli Space Technologies carrying an aluminium “Spacetime plaque” with messages from the supporters of Puli Space Technologies –, Masten Systems in 2022, and Astrobotic again in 2023 will help bring NASA equipment and small instruments and devices to the Moon, among other things.
The task of such expeditions is to map lunar resources and explore their potential for utilisation. This is called ISRU principle, meaning the use of resources available on site. (ISRU stands for In Situ Resource Utilisation). On the Moon, water is the number one candidate for ISRU opportunities, or more precisely, water ice. In the future, Moon settlers could utilise it as a water supply, but it could also serve as rocket fuel, as electrolysis can produce hydrogen and oxygen.
According to the latest research, there is 40,000 km2 worth of potential ice deposits. Exploring them is of paramount importance. Here enters the Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS), the latest Hungarian development that uses CMOS image sensors in a special way to measure cosmic radiation and to count the number of neutrons of different levels of energy coming from the soil of the Moon. This way,
it is able to identify hydrogen (water ice) and measure the amount of it in the soil. Moreover, the PLWS is very compact and can be mounted on the underside of moon rovers of only 2 kg in size,
making it cost-effective to launch. In the near future, we will be able to create detailed water ice maps of the Moon thanks to the sniffing of a dog which will not bark at but BE on the Moon.
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Featured image: pulispace.com
New Hungarian invention makes the lives of Apple fans easier – VIDEO
Apple users’ prayers have been heard by a Hungarian start-up that promises to make the life of the brand’s loyal users much easier. Fruitdock’s team is now working alongside Tungsram to help launch their device called DoBox both in the domestic and global markets.
According to Hvg, back in 2019, at the CES – the world’s largest annual electronics expo – in Las Vegas, the gadget of a Hungarian start-up called Fruitdock won the Innovation Award of that year. The developers of DoBox promised that this device would be the missing link between Apple’s closed systems and various accessories. It connects to Apple devices wirelessly, but you are able to connect a traditional mouse and keyboard and use it on your iPhone or iPad, for example.
But the DoBox has countless other functions which you can manage through a free app.
Thanks to its plethora of ports, almost any device can be connected to it. It has internal storage that can be further enhanced thanks to a memory card slot, so you can safely and easily back up any data on it from your Apple devices. The DoBox can also create a secure hotspot connection for public Wi-fi networks, and it can be used as a portable wireless router. You can even connect wired headphones or earphones to it so you can enjoy your favourite music, connect to your TV, and play videos, but if you are in a pinch, you can use it as a power bank.
“Our company was founded to create electronic products that make life easier for Apple users and expand the usability of Apple products in everyday work as well,”
Tungsram’s statement quotes Máté Molnár and Szabolcs Duli, two dreamers of the DoBox. According to them, the biggest advantage of their product is that users do not have to buy new adapters and cables or discard their old accessories every time they purchase a new iPhone, iPad, or MacBook with a different plug.
Tungsram, which has been known worldwide for its lighting solutions, but it has also been a technology solutions provider for the past two years, comes into the picture as, according to a preliminary agreement with Fruitdock, it will manufacture and market the DoBox. With 5G network available in Budapest, this device may become even more potent.
Featured image: dobox.com
Read alsoNew Android Auto has received official support in Hungary
New Android Auto has received official support in Hungary
Google has recently announced that Android Auto will receive official support in a number of European, African, and Asian countries, and it is particularly good news for Hungary, as it is also going to get support.
According to Hvg, Android Auto, only supported in 36 countries so far, will soon cover twice that many, 72 countries. The service will be continuously rolled out in the newly supported countries in the coming weeks, so Hungary might need to wait a little bit before the service is active.
Previously, anyone who wanted to use Android Auto in Hungary needed to use a trick and manually tinker with the app’s folders, but this will not be necessary in the future.
24 says that with Android Auto, mobile apps can be displayed on the car’s own infotainment system, so even Waze, Spotify, and Google Calendar become easy to use. There will be no need to look at your small device’s display to use such apps anymore. You will also be able to contact Google Now at any time.
In order to use Android Auto, a smartphone running Android 10 must simply be connected to the car’s infotainment unit with a USB cable. For smartphones running older Android operating systems, the Android Auto app must be downloaded separately. But the latest, Android 11 devices will be able to connect to the car wirelessly.
Google and Apple have been offering motorists a solution that blurs the line between built-in navigation and smartphones since the mid-2010s. The former’s solution is Android Auto and the latter’s is CarPlay, but none of them had received any official support in Hungary before.
The basic idea is very simple: the smartphone runs Waze or Google Maps and displays its image, among other functions, not on its own, but on the car’s central display.
If the device is also allowed to be connected to the car’s audio system, then the smartphone can access the car’s GPS and mobile network antennas. After that, the navigation software is easy to operate via simple voice commands or even buttons on the steering wheel or the centre console. In most cases, the smart device needs to be connected to the car with a USB cable. Slowly but surely, the wireless method is gaining some ground on both platforms with wireless recharging capabilities as well.
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Hungarian university joins the European human-centred AI network
The main goal of the H2020 project is to develop a human-centred AI system that is capable of adapting to complex real-world environments and appropriately interacting in complicated social settings. HumanE AI researchers are coming from 12 European member states and 35 institutions across many scientific disciplines. Their current project also involves researchers from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), the oldest and largest university in Hungary.
Coordinated by DFKI (Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz), HumanE AI Net brings together top European research centres, universities and key industrial champions into a network of centres of excellence. HumanE AI aims to develop the scientific and technological foundations for artificial intelligence that is tailored to European needs as well as ethical, social, and cultural values. This requires innovations in numerous areas, such as Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction, Natural Language Processing and Conversational AI.
HumanE AI divided their core innovations into the following categories:
- “Tools for enhancing human cognitive capabilities, channelling human creativity, inventiveness and intuition and empowering humans to make crucial decisions in a more informed way
- AI systems that can intelligently interact within complex social settings and operative in open-ended environments
- Enabling technologies for explainable, transparent, validated and trustworthy AI systems and
- New approaches to embed value-based ethics and European Cultural, Legal and social values as core design considerations in all AI systems and applications.”
The European research network contributes to the development of robust, trustworthy AI systems that understand humans, adapt to human environments, and behave appropriately in social situations.
The current project places the new technological results in a broader social and ethical context and puts a great emphasis on the concept of artificial intelligence that understands, helps and empowers humans, writes ELTE.
With the help of augmented intelligence, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University supports the work of doctors and health care workers in the areas of diagnosis, monitoring and therapy. The main areas of application are post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and autism in the field of psychiatry and the evaluation of medical imaging results in the field of radiology.
The participation of Eötvös Loránd University is coordinated by the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Faculty of Informatics with the involvement of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics. Due to the complex software requirements of the interaction, several departments of the Faculty of Informatics are involved in the project. The Department of Physics of Complex Systems and the Artificial Intelligence Research Group of the Institute of Mathematics supports the work with their extensive research experience.
The H2020 project provides an outstanding opportunity for the researchers at Eötvös Loránd University to contribute to the implementation of European Artificial Intelligence strategy and collaborate with the leading European universities and industrial companies.
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