Monthly Archives: June 2016

Google Is Adding a VR Shell To Chrome To Let You Browse the Entire Web In VR

Posted on by

An anonymous reader writes: While it’s possible to create and view specially built virtual reality ‘WebVR’ websites through today’s browsers, traversing the web in VR means taking your VR headset on and off as you come across VR websites and non-VR websites. Google is working to fix this by adding a ‘VR Shell’ to the Chrome browser that will render non-VR websites in a virtual environment, and allow seamless transitioning from them to WebVR sites. Recent developer builds of Chrome on Android reveal both the WebVR API and VR Shell directly integrated into the browser. The company is also working on adding support for headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on desktop.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Google Is Adding a VR Shell To Chrome To Let You Browse the Entire Web In VR

I Don't Want To Make A Whole Thing Out Of It But I Totally Should've Gotten Play Of The Game For This

Posted on by

Look, I realize that Overwatch’s Play of the Game
system is flawed. When it comes down to it, I’m usually just happy if my team won. But COME ON, this is some bullshit.

Read more…



Source: Kotaku – I Don’t Want To Make A Whole Thing Out Of It But I Totally Should’ve Gotten Play Of The Game For This

ASUS Reveals Their New RX 480 GPU Design

Posted on by

After a lengthy tease from AMD we are finally seeing the new AMD Radeon RX 480 roll out. As we saw in our preview the card successfully makes leaps in its power to performance profile and brings a healthy performance jump to the mainstream market. It goes without saying that there will be custom cards coming from other vendors.


ASUS is the first to throw their hat into the ring with their new ROG Strix RX 480. This card will of course feature AMD’s new Polaris 10 core which brings us performance improvements with less power and heat. The ROG Strix RX 480 will also be an 8GB card running at 8GHz on the cards 256-bit bus, though ASUS has not yet released clock speeds for the GPU core.


The new card will be housed in ASUS’s DirectCU III cooler which will allow more performance and less noise. Around back the card will have a back plate. With both the back plate and the black metal shroud featuring Asus’s new Aura RGB lighting which will be helpful in color matching the card to a wide variety of builds.


ASUS is first to the punch with their custom cards, but many are sure to follow with the new release of the AMD Radeon RX 480. We’ll be sure to report on them as announcements come in.



Source: AnandTech – ASUS Reveals Their New RX 480 GPU Design

After Brexit comes Rosexitt: European scientists to end spacecraft’s life

Posted on by

The Rosetta spacecraft will soon get too close to Comet 67P for comfort. In fact, it will crash into the comet. (credit: European Space Agency)

After launching 12 years ago and achieving its primary mission of reaching an orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the aging Rosetta spacecraft will now die. On September 30, the European Space Agency says it will command Rosetta to crash into the comet it has been following since 2014.

Now at a distance of more than 850 million km from the Sun, Rosetta’s two solar arrays cannot collect enough power to guarantee the spacecraft’s heaters will keep it warm enough to survive. Instead of putting Rosetta into hibernation, which engineers believe is not survivable, Rosetta will follow its Philae lander to the surface of the comet.

The journey, at least, should prove fruitful. During the final hours of descent, Rosetta will attempt to capture some very high-resolution images of the comet while collecting other data about 67P. Scientists hope communications with the spacecraft continue right up until the very end—when it crashes into the comet.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – After Brexit comes Rosexitt: European scientists to end spacecraft’s life

'Wreck-It Ralph 2' is officially set to wreck the internet in 2018

Posted on by

Everyone’s favorite game-related Disney movie (no, not Tron) Wreck-It Ralph is set for a sequel that’s hitting the scene on March 9, 2018. This news probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone given the original’s massive success back in 2012, but…

Source: Engadget – ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ is officially set to wreck the internet in 2018

Live in NYC or London? This chatbot will help you appeal parking tickets

Posted on by

Joshua Browder, a 19-year-old British student at Stanford University, has created a chatbot (DoNotPay.co.uk) that successfully challenged parking tickets in London and New York City.

The chat interface asks a few basic questions and then auto-generates a legal appeal for a parking ticket (it can also make a claim for compensation regarding delayed flights). Alternatively, a simple Web form is available for those who don’t want to interact with an AI.

“When I started the website, it was because I got a few parking tickets myself,” Joshua Browder told Ars by phone. “Local governments aren’t issuing these tickets when people are doing something wrong—they’re doing it to raise revenue.”

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Live in NYC or London? This chatbot will help you appeal parking tickets

The It Movies Have Just Started Filming and They're Already Freaking Us Out

Posted on by

Andy Muschietti is best-known for the Jessica Chastain-starring horror movie Mama, but that will surely change once his two-part adaptation
of Stephen King’s It is released. The director has been posting behind-the-scenes snaps to his Instagram, including a possible peek at the story’s most-feared character.

Read more…



Source: io9 – The It Movies Have Just Started Filming and They’re Already Freaking Us Out

Why Are So Many MMA Fighters Truthers, Conspiracists, And Just Plain Weird?

Posted on by

In late May, Tito Ortiz made a public appearance at a Donald Trump rally, holding up a bumper sticker that read, “Hillary Clinton killed my friends.” It wasn’t the first time he’d publicly backed the demagogue developer; earlier this year he went on a radio show and explained his support of Trump by delivering a jumbled approximation of a sentence about extremists and Mexicans. (Ortiz himself is of Mexican descent.) Before that, he was a contestant on Trump’s show Celebrity Apprentice; the future GOP nominee fired him.

Read more…



Source: Kotaku – Why Are So Many MMA Fighters Truthers, Conspiracists, And Just Plain Weird?

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross made a song for NASA's Juno mission

Posted on by

Nine Inch Nails frontman and Apple Music contributor Trent Reznor has another project with his film soundtrack partner Atticus Ross. This time around, the duo has created a nearly 9-minute track to celebrate NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. The single…

Source: Engadget – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross made a song for NASA’s Juno mission

Spotify Says Apple Won't Approve New Version Of Its App Because It Doesn't Want Competition For Apple Music

Posted on by

According to a report on Recode, Apple has rejected an update to Spotify’s iOS app, and that this has caused a “grave harm to Spotify and its customers.” The Swedish-based music company competes with Apple’s Music streaming app and service. In a letter to Apple’s top lawyer, Spotify says that Apple turned down a version of the app citing “business model rules” and demanded that Spotify uses Apple’s billing system if it wants to acquire new customers and sell subscriptions. From the report:The letter, sent by Spotify general counsel Horacio Gutierrez to Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell on May 26, suggests that Spotify intends to use the standoff as ammunition in its fight over Apple’s rules governing subscription services that use its App store. “This latest episode raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law,” Gutierrez wrote. “It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music, particularly when seen against the backdrop of Apple’s previous anticompetitive conduct aimed at Spotify … we cannot stand by as Apple uses the App Store approval process as a weapon to harm competitors.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Spotify Says Apple Won’t Approve New Version Of Its App Because It Doesn’t Want Competition For Apple Music

$29 off $100 at Fandango, $70 Fitbit Charge HR, and More in eBay's Flash Sale

Posted on by

From now until 3PM PT (6PM ET), eBay is taking $15 off any $75 order (with a few exclusions) when you check out with Paypal and use code CRUISEN2SUMMER at checkout. That includes gift cards (other than eBay gift cards), so there’s really no reason not to take advantage.

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – off 0 at Fandango, Fitbit Charge HR, and More in eBay’s Flash Sale

So when are we going to see more of Nintendo’s NX, anyway?

Posted on by

(credit: Aurich / Getty)

Usually, when a new game console is nine months away from launch, the console maker has already softened the ground for the upcoming debut with trade show announcements, hints at exclusive games, and at least some public discussion of its technical specifications. Yet Nintendo’s NX is currently nine months away from launch (if the company’s current March 2017 launch roadmap is to be believed), and we still know next to nothing about “the new hardware system with a brand-new concept” that was first mentioned publicly roughly 15 months ago.

That state of affairs has left us flailing at wild, patent-based guesses about the console’s design and grasping at extremely small crumbs of concrete information when they rarely appear.

Nintendo does at least have a public excuse for keeping details of the NX so secret for so long. Speaking at a Japanese investor meeting this week (as translated by Twitter user Cheesemeister), legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto said the company is “worried about imitators” if it shows off the console’s new ideas too early. Miyamoto also talked about protecting those new ideas in a recent interview with the AP. “In terms of NX, there’s an idea that we’re working on. That’s why we can’t share anything at this point… If it was just a matter of following advancements in technology, things would be coming out a lot quicker.”

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – So when are we going to see more of Nintendo’s NX, anyway?

Trippy Omni-Directional Wheels Can Move Car In Any Direction

Posted on by

omni-directional-wheels.gif

This is a video demonstration of the Liddiard Omni-Directional Wheels designed and built by William Liddiard. They can move a car in any direction except up or down because, and I don’t know if you could tell or not, but this isn’t a hovercar, it’s a Toyota Echo. In William’s words while I fix a flat on my own car because that curb came out of nowhere I swear:

Unlike other omni capable wheels, my wheels do not require the vehicle to be built around them. This is a world first bolt-on application for anything with wheels. Designed to be used in all weather and road conditions. They are stronger, faster, and more accurately controlled than prior wheels. They can take a beating. The tires can have the same build characteristics (siping, grooves, rubber compounds etc.) as regular tires. Now you can drive in all directions, and turn on the spot, when needed. These are proof of concept prototypes to show that they work. Finished wheels will be refined to target application requirements.

Setup on this car has an incredible 24,000 pounds of torque directly on the tires!

No CGI here (I did not want the tires to move too fast at road speeds so I used a high gear ratio. I now know I should have used a lower ratio). Fast speeds are definitely possible. Now ANYTHING with wheels can be omni capable (not just cars).

Impressive. I want a set of these on my car so I can turn my car around in my driveway so I don’t have to back out into traffic. That’s dangerous. People honk at me. And not a friendly toot toot either, a real lay on the horn honk and usually the finger and few choice derogatory words. I usually yell back at them about their mom or girlfriend which makes it extra scary because now all these people know where I live.

Keep going for the video.

Source: Geekologie – Trippy Omni-Directional Wheels Can Move Car In Any Direction