It’s been a productive week for those of us trying to get the hell off this crazy planet. NASA showed off a radiation-proof flight vest for interplanetary astronauts while Blue Origin debuted its latest rocket engine and previewed its upcoming New Glenn spacecraft .
Category: Gadgets
‘The Mummy’ in VR was shallow, but the seats were not
VR seat company Positron teamed up with Universal at SXSW this year to showcase a “Zero Gravity VR Experience” tied in with the studio’s The Mummy reboot. While it fell short of simulating weightlessness, it was nonetheless a nice way to watch virtual reality.
AirBar adds a few more touchscreen tricks to the MacBook Air
We saw a prototype of the AirBar,an odd but useful device that sits below your MacBook Air’s screen and turn it into a touchscreen, back at CES . But here at SXSW 2017, the company is back with a new model that’s almost ready for production.
ICYMI: Airbus and Italdesign exhibit a Pop.Up future
Today on In Case You Missed It : Airbus and Italdesign demoed yet another flying car concept at the Geneva Auto Show this week. Dubbed “Pop.Up” the modular and autonomous vehicle can transform from a four-wheeled car to a quadcopter, depending on your destination and habits.
Retinal implant could add years to your eyesight
Scientists have been struggling to fight retinal degeneration in an elegant way. The most practical solution so far involves external devices that send wires to the back of your eyes.
Flippy Is A Robot That Will Be Flipping Burgers At CaliBurger
It is no secret that in the future robots could be replacing some of the jobs that we do. We’re already seeing this in factories where robots are replacing humans on the assembly line namely because they can work more efficiently and require no rest, thus potentially allowing them to work around the clock.
8K VR Motion Ride Tour Of Tokyo To Debut At SXSW
If there is a limitation to virtual reality technology, it would be resolution. With the displays pretty much right in front of your eyes, a higher resolution is now more important than ever because seeing pixels due to it being low resolution can sometimes ruin the immersive experience.
The Morning After: Tuesday, March 7th 2017
Some good news / weird news for the Nintendo Switch, a video game cheating service lost in court and a look inside Sonos’ newest speaker. Keep an eye on the site for news today from the Geneva Motor Show , but first, here’s everything you might have missed on Monday.
Zelda On Switch Appears To Run Smooth Undocked
The Nintendo Switch is an interesting console in the sense that gamers can play games at home while the console is docked, or on the go while the console is undocked where it’s kind of like a tablet. However it seems that in terms of gaming performance, there’s a difference when it is docked and where it is undocked.
Moon mission will test an anti-radiation vest for astronauts
For astronauts headed to Mars , the biggest threat might not be an unforgiving climate or dwindling supplies — it could be gamma ray radiation that gradually wrecks their bodies. Explorers may soon have a way to shield themselves, though.
Smart garbage can turns trash into a game
Waste is a big concern for cities — after all, no one likes looking at trash on the street. But it ends up there anyway, for various reasons: bins overflow, sometimes they’re hard to find and worst of all, some people just don’t care what they do with their trash.
This cock ring connects to the world’s worst social network
The Moneyball -era Oakland A’s improved their on-field performance by using advanced statistics to build the best baseball team they could. In the bedroom, wearable devices like SexFit and Lovely bring a similar approach to less clothed athletics.
LG’s SteamVR headset is a bulky yet promising HTC Vive alternative
For the past year, the only two contenders in the PC virtual reality space were the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive . Not anymore.
HTC Vive Financing Options And Accessories Price Revealed
At the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 last month, HTC announced a couple of new accessories for its Vive virtual reality headset. The company has confirmed the official price for the Vive Tracker and Vive Deluxe Audio Strap accessories at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona.
Almost One Million PlayStation VR Units Sold Since Launch
According to a new report, when Sony launched the PlayStation VR , it set an internal goal to push one million units of the virtual reality headset within six months of launch. It appears that the company has come close to achieving that goal with time to spare.
Verizon Droid Turbo 2 Nougat Update Released
Droid Turbo 2 owners on Verizon should clear up some time this weekend because their handset is receiving an update which brings the latest iteration of Google ‘s mobile platform. The Verizon Droid Turbo 2 Nougat update release is finally taking place.
Six Flags’ new VR roller coaster is both breathtaking and broken
Imagine screaming through deep space, swerving through the wreckage of exploding starships in a high-octane scene plucked straight out of a science fiction movie. Suddenly the universe stops, frozen in time as your body continues to hurl through the void at high speed.
Re: Engineers week
At Launch Forth, we are striving to connect the rapid evolution of technology to the innovative spirit of co-creation. Engineers use our platform to help companies solve problems and design products with the perk of having their work noticed and appreciated by everyone in the community.
Exploring death through the isolation of VR
I’m sitting on a field of tall, red grass staring straight ahead at a lone tree. Its leaves match the crimson landscape that stretches out before me.
Xiaomi to announce its ‘Pinecone’ mobile chipset this month
Following reports from earlier this month, today Xiaomi confirmed on Weibo that it will be announcing its very own mobile chipset, named after its subsidiary ” Pinecone ,” in Beijing on February 28th. Little else is mentioned, but rumors going as far back as October are pointing to a Mi 5c aka “Meri” as the first device to carry this chip.
SpaceX Mars Mission Delayed
SpaceX has made no secret of the fact that it wants to go to Mars and, that too, very soon. The company previously set an ambitious target to launch its first unmanned mission to Mars in 2018 but SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has now said that the company realizes that it might have been too ambitious with this target.
Toyota, GM and Lyft want nationwide rules for self-driving cars
Automakers Toyota and GM and ride-sharing firm Lyft called on the US government to create US-wide standards to ease the testing and adoption of autonomous cars . The problem, they say, is that rules vary widely across the country are more restrictive in some states than others .
Intel 8th Generation Processors Sticking With 14nm Process
Gone are the days when Intel’s new chips firmly stuck to the tick-tock method, which basically meant that there would be a new processor with one generation and a new architecture with the next. The company has now confirmed that its upcoming 8th generation of processors is going to stick with the 14 nanometer process for the fourth time in a row.
iPhone 8 Wireless Charging May Require Separate Accessory
Another day, another report about the iPhone 8. It has long been rumored that the iPhone 8 is finally going to get wireless charging and now there’s a new report out which claims that the next-generation iPhone is actually going to require a separate accessory for wireless charging. It’s also claimed in the report that the iPhone 8 is not going to come with a Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter.
NASA figured out how to make Venus-resistant electronics
There’s a reason why we’re focused on colonizing Mars rather than Venus: the latter is absolutely inhospitable . Its atmosphere is 96 percent carbon dioxide and in terms of pressure, 92 times stronger than Earth’s.
New Lenovo Mobile Workstations At SOLIDWORKS World 2017
As SOLIDWORKS World 2017 opens, Lenovo is announcing three new mobile workstations laptops with the ThinkPad P51s, ThinkPad P51, and ThinkPad P71. All three have common traits such as 4K UHD display, NVIDIA Quadro graphics processor, and Intel processors.
Lenovo Announces Yoga A12 Android Tablet
If you’re after a new tablet that you plan to use for work or school, you might be interested to learn that Lenovo has recently taken the wraps off its latest Android tablet offering: the Lenovo Yoga A12 . This is an affordable Android tablet that according to the company, is aimed at users looking for that all-day productivity.
Gear Review – REVIEW: Outdoor Research Stormtracker Heated Gloves
Each device needs its own batteries of course, and life being as it is you’ve usually forgotten to charge at least one set the night before. So what do you get the climber or hillwalker who already has practically every gadget going? Battery powered gloves.
The Gita is your rolling robot porter
Though robots are increasingly making their way into factories, offices and even airports, they’re still not something you’d encounter walking down a city street — and definitely not in a way that’s personally useful to you. We’d all love to have our own personal BB-8 droid to follow us around and help get things done, but so far we’ve had to settle for robotic vacuums and airport greeters .
The FBI’s iPhone Cracking Tools Have Been Released To The Public
Last year thanks to the efforts by a company called Cellebrite, a set of cracking tools were developed for the FBI to help them break into an encrypted iPhone . This was after Apple had refused to help the FBI to break into the device, and also after they had refused to create a backdoor for the authorities.
Hackers use streaming devices to make radio stations play ‘FDT’
Rapper YG performs at the Fillmore Silver Spring in Silver Spring, MD as part of his FDT Tour. The tour takes it name from YG’s viral anthem ‘FDT .’
Gap envisions a future with augmented reality ‘dressing rooms’
Fashion brands know that experimenting with tech is imperative, whether it be to enhance the retail experience or introduce fans to the concept of virtual reality. For Gap Inc., which, in addition to its eponymous label owns Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix, technology has never played a major role in its business strategy.
NASA Uses Pressure-Sensitive Paint To Test Their Rockets
Sending rockets up into space is an expensive process which is why it is incredibly heartbreaking to see when sometimes rockets fail to launch, or something goes wrong halfway. While there could be a number of reasons why rockets fail to take off or fail halfway, NASA has recently decided to employ the use of pressure-sensitive paints .
Surgical robot makes highly precise eye injection possible
For the first time ever, a team of eye surgeons were able to inject a thrombolytic drug directly into a patient’s retinal vein to dissolve a blood clot. It was a success despite the fact that the vein is as thin as human hair thanks to a surgical robot developed by researchers from KU Leuven , a university in Belgium.
NASA uses pressure-sensitive paint to test its rockets
How can NASA make sure its rockets are ready to handle the intense buffeting produced during launch? Scientists have recently started using pressure-sensitive paint that reacts with oxygen to produce light.
Oculus explains how room-scale VR taxes your USB ports
We’ve been dealing with USB for about two decades now, and to be honest, we’re not usually asking that much from it. Plug in an adapter, microphone or game controller, then keep it moving.
Ford SmartLink brings WiFi, LTE-connected features to older cars
If you want new car features like the ability to remote start via an app or have a WiFi hotspot onboard without buying a new car, then Ford’s new SmartLink is one way to add them. Chrysler has offered WiFi and other features as a part of Uconnect since 2008, while GM followed on most vehicles in 2014 but Ford’s Sync platform leaned more on customer’s own devices.
Second ‘celebgate’ hacker sentenced to nine months in prison
For his part in the “celebgate” celebrity hacking scandal , 29-year-old Chicago man Edward Majerczyk will be sentenced to nine months in federal prison. Last July, Majerczyk agreed to plead guilty to felony computer hacking charges, admitting that he scammed more than 300 people, including 30 celebrities, in order to steal their Gmail and iCloud account info.
Hugo Barra’s next job: Head of Oculus VR
Mark Zuckerberg just revealed the next landing spot for former Google and Xiaomi executive Hugo Barra : Facebook. As Barra revealed a couple of days ago, he’s coming back to Silicon Valley and will “lead all of our virtual reality efforts, including our Oculus team.”
The End of Terrible Wi-Fi Is Near
Everybody hates Wi-Fi. The boxes are ugly, and it never seems to work when you need it.