The independent game development studio Campo Santo Productions announced their début title Firewatch at PAX 2014. The single-player first-person explorer follows Henry, who has taken up a summer job as a fire lookout in Wyoming’s wilderness with the only lifeline being radio chatter with another watch tower.
The developers who work at Campo Santo have previously contributed to games such as Bioshock II, The Walking Dead: Season 1, The Cave, Mark of the Ninja and Brutal Legend, so they aren’t new to game development. Firewatch uses the Unity 3D game engine, and the début screenshots and video reveal some pretty stunning graphics.
The video above is about the information we get about the game for now, and it isn’t clear yet what the excact objectives and goals of the game are. I doesn’t look like it will be a smooth sailing and the player should encounter many problems, beyond their fire-watch duties. The game is set for a 2015 release.
Thank you dsogaming for providing us with this information
The highly anticipated open-end MMORPG build on cryteks engine, ArcheAge, has gotten it’s official release date announced during PAX. Trion also announced an open beta period for everyone to test out the new world and go on an adventure. The open beta will start on Thursday, September 4 at 10:00 AM PDT and run to the same time on the 8th.
To all of Erenor’s intrepid adventurers, be you fierce warriors, brave explorers, fearsome pirates, or skilled crafters: we welcome you as a member of ArcheAge’s launch community! Revealed this evening in Seattle at PAX Prime 2014 to an audience of your fellow players, Trion Worlds and XLGAMES are proud to officially announce that ArcheAge will launch on Tuesday, September 16
There is no invitation needed and the ones lucky enough to play the closed beta can return to their characters as they were including taxes and crops. The characters will however be wiped for the official launch, or rather 4 days prior. Early adopters and founders get a four day head-start into the game.
Alpha testers will be rewarded as well, but with what is unknown. The statement reads, “Starting this Saturday at 6:00 PM PDT, our diligent Alpha testers should check their in-game mail, keep a weather eye on the horizon, and be ready for anything…”
The game isn’t the traditional 3 class mmorpg, but allows you to build unique characters, to a certain degree, out of a long list of skills and abilities. There are four different races to chose from, six primary skillsets and four more support skillsets that can be combined into more then 100 classes.
The economy is player-driven. Gatherers, crafters and traders are the engine that drives ArcheAge and the economy within. With the skills you’ll master you can raft goods and homes or galleons and castles. You can also transport and trade materials across the realm where you’ll of course need to protect it.
The game of course, like any, has a rich player versus player action. It has normal raids and pvp action as well as sabotage and piracy. Trion calls it a world-changing PvP, but how much of it actually is new is to be seen. The game also has a vast uncharted ocean that separate the continents. Of course there is an ideal new battle arena in that and the game features Naval combat on the high seas. Amass your fame and fortune by trading and pirating.
The video below is a 20 minute introduction into the game and can have spoilers for those who want to experience it themselves first hand.
When you think of Antec power supplies Seasonic instantly come to mind as they’ve been the OEM producer of a significant chunk of Antec’s products. However, when it comes to Antec’s extremely high end “High Current Pro” (HCP) platinum series, they actually use Delta Electronics. This is fairly interesting because Delta Electronics haven’t really had a presence in the consumer market for quite some time, instead they’ve focused mainly on the enterprise and server power supply market where the big money is. Whatever deal Antec struck up they’ve done well to get their HCP series made by Delta Electronics, inevitably this means they will hold a significant premium but in return you quite literally get a server-class power supply in a consumer package. Today we are taking a look at Antec’s HCP 850 power supply which is a fully modular and 80 Plus Platinum rated power supply. Right off the bat you might be surprised with just how big Antec’s HCP 850 is but the reason for that is simple: all that performance and quality requires additional components over a standard consumer power supply. If the fact Delta Electronics make Antec’s HCG 850 wasn’t enough to convince you, then the 7 year warranty definitely should. Let’s take a look at Antec’s HCG 850 and see exactly how it fares in our review!
Packaging and Contents
The front of the packaging features a glossy silver finish to accentuate the fact this unit is something special and Platinum rated. Antec quote up to 94% efficiency with 100% cable management (aka fully modular).
Around the back we find a list of features in multiple languages as well as various logos for the certifications this power supply has.
Included with the power supply is an overview guide, warranty statement, some cable ties, some case screws and a power cable.
There have been going reports around for a while about the mysterious Batman spotted in and around Chiba Prefecture in Japan. When the mysterious caped crusader was captured on camera and uploaded to YouTube, the whole thing went viral.
There were a lot of speculation about who it could be, rumours and false claims from people saying they had talked to the masked hero. At first it was believed to be a “wealthy commuter” riding around on his modified tricycle. As so many times rumours get blown out of proportion on the internet and for a while it was believed the modifications had cost ¥9 million (about £882.000).
The Japanese morning news team quickly became interested in this masked stranger too and set out to find him. And not only did they find him, they also convinced him to give an interview in his secret “Batcave”. All the speculations and rumours turned out to be wrong when it was revealed that the Japanese Batman is a 41-year old bachelor that does repair work at the port. The modifications from tricycle to Batpod weren’t as expensive as expected either, as the modifications only cost about 600.000 Yen (roughly £3500).
His motivation wasn’t crime fighting either, nor was it to become a viral superstar. It is way more simple then that, all he wanted was to put a smile on people’s faces when they see him. He surely succeeded with me.
Thank you cnbeta for providing us with this information.
Update: Turns out this story was a hoax, the following article should be seen as satire at best.
Recently we brought you news of someone being hit with a stupid and incredibly dangerous prank known as “swatting”, the act of calling the real SWAT police on another gamer. Today we have the results of what happens to people who think doing something like this “is a good idea”.
15 year old Paul Horner broke down in tears in front of a judge after he was found guilty on two counts of domestic terrorism, which even at the age of 15 has landed him with a staggering 25 years to life sentence, ouch! This makes Horner the first person in history to be charged on offences for swatting and given that this is a worrying and growing trend, he is likely being made into an example to prevent this prank from happening again.
It’s a waste of valuable police resources and it puts peoples lives at risk. Horner was upset that a follow Battlefield 4 gamer was beating him, so he obtained his private information and called police on a reported murder and hostage situation at the gamers address. When SWAT raided the house things went to hell, the gamer father was shot and critically injured in the process.
Prosecutors played audio of Horner’s 911 phone call to the jury: “I just shot and killed four people. If any police enter my home I will kill them too,” the statement read in part.
In short, Horner has got a lot of time to think about what he has done.
Thank you Nationalreport for providing us with this information.
I’m not a fan of what Alienware do, to my mind they’re the Bose of the computer world, selling massively overpriced products that are more show than go, especially when compared to the newer system integrators that are doing more for less. Yet with all that said and done, I can’t help but take not of their new Area 51 system!
The chassis on this system is very unique, looking unlike anything I’ve seen on a PC before, in fact it looks like more like a stasis pod, I’m half expecting the front to flip up and Master Chief to step out of it.
Alienware call this the “triad case” and while it does look unique, they say it has been designed to vent warm air upwards and out of the case. The rest of the case is fitted with little extras such as built-in handles and LED lighting while the power comes from a choice of Haswell-E CPUs, DDR4, 1500W PSUs a whole lot more, prices start at a lot of money and get out of hand incredibly quickly.
Thank you TweakTown for providing us with this information.
Dell have blown the covers off of their latest monitor, the Ultrasharp U3415W. Their new panel is a whopping 34 inch curved display with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a tasty 3440 x 1440 resolution.
Dell say that the wide field of view that you get with this aspect ratio on a panel of this size is matched with the curve to give gamers a better experience, helping you play better by filling your peripheral vision. It should mean your eyes can see more of the screen real estate without having to shift your eyes around as much, which is no bad thing.
Dell are planning to ship their new panel in December and while there are no details on price just yet, you can bet it isn’t going to be cheap given size of the panel. We expect more details such as the full specifications and price will be revealed soon.
Thank you TweakTown for providing us with this information.
Earlier this year the Internet Archive began culling over 14 million images from their public domain ebooks, then began uploading them to the Internet Archive’s Flickr account. This means that all of the historic images are now easily searchable and downloadable, something that wasn’t really possible before without downloading each ebook and finding the images yourself, then exporting them.
The ebooks are easily searchable already thanks to the Optical Character Recognition software which was used when adding them to the archive, but it didn’t work for images. Now with the help of Flickr, those looking for historic text and images can get the best of both worlds.
“The software also copied the caption for each image and the text from the paragraphs immediately preceding and following it in the book,” said The Internet Archives Communications Technology Scholar Kavel Leetaru when speaking with the BBC.
The software used isn’t perfect, so admittedly some of the tags on images will be imprecise, but to have such a vast library of easily searchable content is great for learning purposes and the team are hoping that libraries around the world will one day follow suit and digitize their books and images.
Thank you Arstechnica for providing us with this information.
Microsoft have finally revealed footage of Halo 3 running on the Xbox One. The footage was taken from the upcoming release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection which launches on the console later this year. The developers have already been eager to show off Halo 2, which has been given a full remastering treatment, much like they did with Halo: CE a couple of years ago. However, this was only to bring it in line with CE, 3 and 4, all of which have had an Xbox 360 release, this means that Halo 3 won’t be getting the full head to toe overhaul.
The graphics have been touched up where needed, 3D models improved and detail added where appropriate, but this is still pretty much the original Halo 3. The graphics are a huge amount clearer and smoother, running 1920 x 1080 @ 60FPS with a new set of shaders, water and lighting effects to really spruce things up. you can see the draw distance, LOD, AA and other things are improved in the video, but unfortunately YouTubes potatoesque compression does nothing for the resolution and FPS of the original footage.
Scientists have managed to send an email from India to France, a distance of about 5000 miles, using only the force of thought (and some technology). Okay, if it really is telepathy or not is a matter of opinion. The definition of the word (from Ancient Greek) is that tele is meaning “distant” and pathos or patheia meaning affliction or experience, and telepathy is the purported transmission of information from one person to another without using any of our known sensory channels or physical interaction. So by that definition it kind of both is and isn’t.
Computers and electroencephalography (EEG) devices were involved in the experiment, so it wasn’t really direct telepathy. The distance is also somewhat uninteresting since the internet was involved and the message wasn’t very complex either. The words hola and ciao were translated into binary and mapped to the brain activity. It’s still a pretty impressive result.
In the initial test, the greeting was sent from a volunteer in Thiruvananthapuram, India to Strasbourg, France where a computer translated the message and then used electrical stimulation to implant it in the receiver’s mind. This message then appeared as flashes of light in the corner of their vision. The light sequences allow the receiver to decode the information in the message.
Enthusiastic about the first success the researchers conducted two more similar experiments. One from Spain and one from France. The second test resulted in a total error with just 15% data accuracy. The other two were however a success.
The technology was developed as part of a collaboration between the University of Barcelona and Starlab in Spain, Axilum Robotics in France and Harvard Medical School. This is said to be the first time humans have sent a message almost directly into another persons brains.
“We anticipate that computers in the not-so-distant future will interact directly with the human brain in a fluent manner, supporting both computer- and brain-to-brain communication routinely,” the study wrote.
Human-to-brain technology is gaining traction in many areas, in May German scientists showed how seven pilots used mind control to fly with astonishing accuracy. Even more amazing was what the University of Oregon researchers showed in June when they unveiled a device that claimed to be able to monitor memories in near real time to see what a person is thinking.
Thank you DailyMailfor providing us with this information.
Microsoft have stated that they will continue to hold on to this information as it waits for the case to wind through the appeals process, until this happens it’s unlikely to see them budge.
On Friday they released a statement:
“Microsoft will not be turning over the email and plans to appeal, everyone agrees this case can and will proceed to the appeals court. This is simply about finding the appropriate procedure for that to happen.” Windows IT Pro
Thus, the judge has ordered Microsoft and it’s prosecutors to advise her on the plan going ahead before next Friday, the 5th of September.
These grainy images depict Sony’s recent leak of an unannounced product promotion. Pictured above you can see the Sony Smartband, now said to be dubbed the SmartWatch 3, and Sony’s more streamlined SmartBand Talk.
9to5Google previously reported on the SmartWatch’s features:
“The SmartWatch 3 will feature a 1.68-inch 320 x 320 display and wll be IP58 certified, but no other details have been confirmed at this point. We’ve also been informed that the Smartwatch 3 will look very similar to Samsung’s Gear 2 Neo in terms of design.”
The SmartBand Talk is said to feature a curved e-ink display and Bluetooth capabilities, following the Sony SWR10 format – which was released earlier in 2014.
Sony’s new wearable devices are set to be officially released at IFA 2014 in a few days time. There’s no denying that SmartWatch releases are coming by the dozens on the market currently, with big players like Samsung and Apple both gearing up for releases.
The hype for Apple’s new wearable device is ramping up. We previously reported on Apples update of their Health Kit policy and competitors such as Samsung preparing new devices in preparation for another large Apple release.
Recode has just reported that Apple executives are currently discussing the release price for the iWatch:
“Apple executives have discussed charging around $400 for the company’s new wearable device.
Pricing has yet to be finalized for the forthcoming product, which is expected to begin shipping next year. Sources say consumers should expect a range of prices for different models including lower priced versions.”
It’s unknown when exactly the product pricing will be officially released, there is a possibility we’ll get a sneak peak on September the 9th at an Apple press conference, although this conference is set for iPhone discussion.
Tim Cook, Apple Chief Executive spoke last year about smartwatch competition at the D: All Things Digital Conference. He was quoted saying “There are lots of gadgets in this space right now, but there’s nothing great out there,” and “But none of them are going to convince a kid that hasn’t worn glasses or a band to wear one … There are a lot of problems to solve in this space. … It’s ripe for exploration. I think there will be tons of companies playing in this space.”
The Coolest Cooler has broken the previous fundraising record on Kickstarter held by the Pebble Smart Watch with a staggering $13.285.226, the Pebble Smart watch only made $10.2 million. It sure looks like people take their time away from home serious and want to have the best cooler with them. And this sure aint no ordinary cooler, it’s the smartest cooler on the block.
This is One amazing cooler, with most things you could need while away at the beach already build-in. There is an 18 Volt Battery powered blender to mix your favourite drinks. It has a rechargeable and replaceable battery. The waterproof Bluetooth speaker is removeable and has multi-streaming abilities. It has a build-in dual USB charger and LED Light. It also has a gear tie-down to secure anything on top that doesn’t go inside. The cooler divider doubles as a cutting board. It has extra wide tires for easy rolling through sand without sinking and has an integrated storage for plates and knife. And don’t forget the bottle opener. The fun times at the beach should be secured with a device like this.
The cooler comes in three different colours. Margarita green, Coolest Orange or Blue Moon, but besides the colour they are identical. Early birds were able to snag up the cooler for $165-185 while the rest will have to add another $135 when it hits the retail market.
While I did expect this Kickstarter campaign to be very successful when I first saw it, I would never have expected it to make that much, and certainly not to break the record set by Pebble.
Thank you Kickstarter for sharing this information with us.
The first mental picture I got in my head when hearing about this car was from That 70’s Show, the entire gang sitting in the basement and contemplating on the universe while Hyde goes on about “the government has a car that runs on water, man!”. Whether that was a conspiracy theory or not, this is real.
The Quant e-Sportlimousine is a car that uses electrolyte flow cell power system as the source for power, and it has now gained the official approval to head onto the European roads. The car made it’s début at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show where it got a very warm welcome. I’m sure the car-maniacs among you are hungry for some numbers, so here they are in short. It has a peak of 920 horsepower (680 kW), does 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.8 seconds and a has a top speed of 350 km/h (217.5 mph).
“We are delighted as pioneers to be able to present an automobile driven by flow cell technology on public roads, and one which achieves not only fantastic performance values but also zero emissions, a projected top speed of over 350 km/h (217.5 mph), acceleration from 0-100 in 2.8 seconds, a torque of four times 2,900 Nm (2,139 lb-ft) and a range of more than 600 km (373 mi)” said Nunzio La Vecchia, the visionary behind the development of the sports car.
After an in-depth inspection of the car, the German TÜV Süd in Munich handed over the official registration plates. The company will now be able to test the car on public roads in Germany and the rest of Europe as they prepare it for series production.
The flow cell system powering the Quant e-Sportlimousine’s four electric motors develops electricity from the electrochemical reaction created by two electrolyte solutions. This electricity is forwarded to super capacitors where it’s stored and distributed. The power density of the nanoFLOWCELL® at 600 W per kilogram or per litre is greater than any comparable system; five times greater, to be specific. That means you can drive five times further with our system than you can with a conventional battery system, including the most state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. The system is also extremely safe to operate and environmentally friendly. Most importantly, since there are almost no moving parts and it produces negligible waste heat, it has an efficiency of more than 80%. “There has never been anything like it.”
“We’ve got major plans, and not just within the automobile industry,” says NanoFlowcell AG Chairman of the Board Prof. Jens-Peter Ellermann. “The potential of the NanoFlowcell is much greater, especially in terms of domestic energy supplies as well as in maritime, rail and aviation technology. The NanoFlowcell offers a wide range of applications as a sustainable, low cost and environmentally-friendly source of energy.”
Hopefully the company will take the NanoFlowcell technology beyond supercars and make it available to everyone, however the potential of this technology reaches far beyond the road.
For most of the world the MSN messenger, or Windows Live Messenger, has been history for a while now after being shut down in April 2013 in favour of Skype, or even longer if you’re like me. It however lived on strong on the Chinese mainland, that is up until now.
Chinese MSN users are starting to get email notifications that the service will shut down at the end of October. The current users will be moved over to Skype instead and each user will get a $2 coupon as compensation for the move to the new service.
This isn’t the exact same Skype version we use though, as it’s modified to fit with Chinese laws and censorship requirements. MSN lived longer in China, but got it’s final nail into the coffin from the success of the QQ messaging service that now has over 200 million users. Skype in comparison has less then 100 million in the Chinese market.
Thank you gigaom for providing us with this information
A new concept originating from Korea show what very well could be the future of doing our laundry. Small robot fish that swim around and “eat” the dirt of our clothes. This is pretty cool in itself and the whole thing is presented to us now on the electrolux design lab.
The Pecera, as it is called, is inspired by the Doctor fish that swim around and eat dead skin cells and similar of your feet. The Pecera works in much the same way, except the small fish are robots. The fish’s mouth is shaped like a sucker and that’s what it does, it sucks the dirt away.
Pecera is a collection of robot fish called Dofi, cleaning your clothes in a water tank without detergent. This sustainable way of washing clothes is inspired by doctor fish who nurture human skin, except these busy fishes run on hydroelectric power and clean garments. The robotic fish detects the dirt in the clothes by using the tiny camera in each fish. The cleaning is made by a suction motion by the robot fish against the dirt particles. Washing without detergent makes this washing method suitable for the most sensitive and creates no need for multiple washing circles using water. The first layer spin-dries and drains off the water from clothes.
The best thing about this new concept is that it doesn’t need any detergent or washing liquids that makes it a lot more environmental friendly. It’s also so stylish and silent that it could be placed in the living room, though I doubt that’s where people will have it. It also removes the fear of oxidation and discolouration of fibres from those detergents. As combination with the robot fish, it uses a alkaline liquid jelly that automatic separates any unnatural elements from the fibres of your clothes.
Thank you electrolux for providing us with this information.
This wonderful map was created by John Matherly, the founder of Shodan, a search engine that searches for connections between devices. It took just five hours to ping every IP address on the internet and store every positive response, then another 12 hours to plot the responses on a heat map. The bright orange areas show densely connected areas while the blue and black areas show sparsely connected areas.
The results are pretty predictable, but also pretty humbling too. As someone who lives in a heavily connected part of the globe and feeling “connected” to everyone around me, it can be easy to forget that large sections of the world still struggle for connection to the rest of us.
Some people have also pointed out a few odd areas on the map, with small islands of ping results in the middle of nowhere, such as the one smack bang in the middle of Greenland, although this is now suspected to be a NOAA observatory. What colour is the area you live in? Let us know in the comments section below.
Thank you Reddit for providing us with this information.
Creating knockoff Lego blocks, a funky key ring or a new phone case are some of the basic features available from your run of the mill consumer 3D printer, but NASA are really pushing the limits of what can be done with the technology by creating 3D printed rocket components.
The 3D printed rocket injectors were successfully tested by NASA at their Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The two injectors mix liquid nitrogen and hydrogen to provide combustion and can reach temperatures of over 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit and are capable of generating around 20,000 pounds of thrust.
“We wanted to go a step beyond just testing an injector and demonstrate how 3-D printing could revolutionize rocket designs,” said Chris Singer, director of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate.
A standard none 3D printed injector would require the creation and assembly of 163 pieces, while the laser melting 3D printing technique required just 2 pieces to be created! That means scientist and engineers saved time making all the extra parts and putting them together, while also meaning a low fail rate by removing so many steps from the injectors construction.
Thank you Time for providing us with this information.
Nintendo are really throwing some strange moves this generation, first they launch the 3DS which was fairly successful in its own right, but to boost sales they cut it down to the 2DS, a cheaper and more accessible model which distanced its self from the 3D features completely due to a lack of consumer interest in the extra functionality and now they’re back again with a heavily re-tooled 3DS.
The new model will launch in Japan on October 11th and will offer a slightly improved CPU, a second analog nub dubbed the “c-stick” that removes the need for the bulky stick add-on, two new shoulder buttons called ZL and ZR, improved 3D viewing angles and a bigger 3.88 inch screen (vs the old 3.53 inches) and improved battery life. There are loads of little tweaks too, like a revised memory card slot, customization faceplates, recoloured face buttons and more.
The “new” 3DS will set you back around 16,000 YEN for the regular model or 18,800 for the XL model (roughly $154 / $181 respectively).
Thank you ArsTechnica for providing us with this information.
I’m not one for going to the gym, not that I don’t work out, but I just find gyms boring in genera. If they would invest in a pair of Cyberith Virtualizers, a couple of Oculus Rift headsets and a copy of Half-Life 2, I’d be pretty buff and/or dead from exhaustion right about now.
Cyberith Virtualizer is the latest in physical VR hardware, allowing you to stretch your legs, pick up a virtual gun and strap on a VR headset to literally go running around your favorite gaming world. CV has a multiplayer twist, in the video below you can see two people facing off in Half Life 2 with impressive results.
The company has almost finished it kickstarter campaign, where they’ve raised $335,545 of their $250,000 goal and while I’m not so sure we’ll see them in gyms, we could see them cropping up in arcades and at events pretty soon.
Voliton had promised the announcement of a new project at PAX, and they came through with it. As expected it’s an addition to the Saints Row series, more specific it’s a standalone expansion to Saints Row IV and is called Gat out of Hell.
Many people were expecting a new game in the series, and while I’m sure that already is in the works as well, this is “just” an addition to the last game. In this version the crew is playing around with an Ouija board when their beloved boss suddenly gets sucked into hell. The crew, always up for an adventure, doesn’t need long to decide to follow him for a rescue.
Users who wish to play the new hell game don’t need to own the original, as it’s a standalone version, with everything included. It should launch in January, on the 27th, next year and cost $20. I for one am looking forward to blowing up some daemons with my dubstep gun.
Thank you Voliton for providing us with this information.
Snapchat news is something that we’ve covered before, and it’s certainly something that you’re likely to see more and more of. It’s becoming an extremely popular application for sharing photos between our younger generations – allowing you to send a photo or video to a friend, with the media deleting itself in a short time-frame.
Recently, Snapchat introduced a feature which allowed users to add their own photos and videos to the “story” of an event – trialing this at Electric Daisy Carnival, Lollapalooza and other similar events.
They were reportedly “blown away” by the public response to this new addition, so now all snapchatters, not just attendees, have the ability to use the “Our Story” feature.
The Snapchat blog let us know how to use their added goodies:
“You’ll notice today that there’s a new ‘Live’ section beneath your Recent Updates …That’s where you’ll be able to experience Stories contributed by the Snapchat community at all sorts of events. It’s a great way to check out what’s happening around the world.”
They went on to point out that this feature is their “favorite new product”. Unfortunately they made no mention of exactly what events will be put under this list and whether these events will be picked at random, or possibly even pay for the rights to be featured.
In a closing statement, they said:
“We were absolutely blown away when Snapchatters contributed over 350 hours of Snaps to Our Story during EDC, Rio, Outside Lands, and Lollapalooza,”
T-mobile have sent invitations out for their latest “Uncarrier” event, which once again is set to shake up the norm and nab themselves potential customers. This marks the 7th installment of such an event, with it set to launch on the 10th of September at 1PM pacific time.
The tagline for this event reads “This time it’s personal” – nothing crazy or new as far as marketing hype or wording is concerned, but its something that can easily get people excited.
The event itself is being hosted in a T-Mobile store, taking themselves away from the normal theater or stage type concept event. One can only assume this matches with the tag line in the way that customers will get direct contact and face to face consultation with T-Mobile staff and superiors.
Thanks to Tech Crunch, we learned about the previous 6 “Uncarrier” events:
“Uncarrier 1: T-Mobile launches its 4G LTE network, ditches annual service contracts Uncarrier 2: T-Mobile expands their upgrade program to allow customers to upgrade their phones twice a year Uncarrier 3: T-Mobile makes international data/texting free Uncarrier 4: T-Mobile announces they’ll cover early termination fees for anyone willing to switch to their network Uncarrier 5: T-Mobile starts a “Test Drive” program to loan potential customers an iPhone 5S for 7 days Uncarrier 6: T-Mobile stops counting data used in select music apps against your monthly limits”
Who can forget? Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday! 17 -year-old Internet sensation Rebecca Black is set to rise from the ashes of her 2011 YouTube hit with a new “rockish” sound.
This marks a new milestone in the singers career. Her new rock sound may be a move to distance herself from previous videos, available for viewing on her YouTube channel.
In a pitch to become more than just a vocal artist, Blacks YouTube account contains numerous blogs, vlogs, vines and other goodies.
Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Rebecca Black is here to stay.
I’ve been on real roller coasters, I’ve been on virtual simulator roller coasters and more recently I’ve been on VR roller coasters from the comfort of my own desk thanks in no small part to Oculus rift. Real roller coasters scared the life out of me, the simulator ones a load of fun and VR ones are mind bending at the best of times… so what happens if you put all three of these ideas together?
A team of researchers from the department of Virtual Design at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, have created an awesome project that throws you around real world roller coasters while subjecting you to a virtual track through the Oculus Rift! Why look at the dull real world when you can get the visuals of being on a flying horse and cart, dashing through an asteroid belt or chasing dragons, even better why not also give you a hand-held gun and let you shoot at virtual things while trying to throw up in the real world!
“Then, on April 7, we actually became VR coaster pioneers – being the very first people to experience an Oculus Rift VR-ride on a real roller coaster, synchronized to the real track,” Wagner wrote on the project’s website. “On that day, we all felt that we were laying the foundation of something very big. Over the following weeks and months, we have been performing more than a hundred test rides and have been making some amazing discoveries.”
“Other than riding an Oculus Rift coaster while sitting at home in front of your desktop, there is no motion sickness or dizziness happening when experiencing this on a real coaster,” the website states. “If the VR ride is synchronized to the real coaster, the sense of balance actually delivers exactly the right feedback that fits the VR simulation.”
They strap a laptop to the roller coaster to run the VR side of things, use sensor data to synchronize the experiences, strap you in with the Oculus Rift and off you go. I think this team have hit on a huge idea here, no doubt Disney and other major theme park operators will be knocking on their door very soon.
Breaking news for those looking to invest in the brand new Intel X99 chipset based motherboards! Asus and Newegg have secured an exclusive deal to ship their new X99 WS motherboard exclusively via Newegg in the US, so if you’re in the market for one of the leading motherboards in the new X99 ranges, then you’ve only got one choice of retailer. This is a pretty big deal for Newegg given that these boards are highly desirable and their launch comes along side the release of DDR4 and the new Haswell-E CPUs.
Aside from investing in a new flagship CPU and a set of expensive DDR4, the new board will set you back an eyewatering $529 from Newegg Business, but you do get a lot back for your money in terms of build quality, reliability and a lot of extra features such as 4-way CrossFireX and SLI with x16 on all four slots, support for i7 and Xeon E5 chips such as the E5-1600, dual Gigabit NICs, 10 USB 3.0 connectors at the back and a whole lot more.
X99 has only had the veil officially lifted for a few hours now, so expect even more details on availability and prices of this board, as well as others in the Asus and X99 ranges over the coming days.
