Battlefield 1’s upcoming Premium Pass was officially announced today, and it’ll run you $49.99 if you want to add all four of the planned expansion packs to your collection.
Source: Engadget – The ‘Battlefield 1’ Premium Pass nets you four new expansions
Monthly Archives: August 2016
Things 'Gizmodo Nights' Sounds Like, Ranked
McDonald’s recalls Happy Meal fitness trackers after they injure kids
Enlarge (credit: McDonald’s)
McDonald’s food isn’t exactly the healthiest choice for kids—and apparently the same can be said of the restaurant’s fitness trackers.
The wristband toys given away in the fast food chain’s signature Happy Meals were intended to help get kids moving. Instead, the toys have gotten company officials racing to issue a recall after the devices were found to burn and irritate kids’ skin. So far, there have been 70 reports of injuries from the colorful gadgets, including seven reports of blistering burns.
On Tuesday, McDonald’s issued a voluntary recall of millions of its “Step It” fitness trackers.
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Source: Ars Technica – McDonald’s recalls Happy Meal fitness trackers after they injure kids
Charlie The Chicken Struttin' That Ass Around The Barnyard In Sweet Blue Pants
This is a video of Prescott, Arizonians Debra and Billy Snodgrass’ rooster Charlie running around the barnyard in a pair of tiny blue pants. Or, if you’re an ant or a grape, f***ng gigantic blue pants. It’s all about perspective. The video really is worth a watch because it’s hard to believe that’s not a tiny person in a chicken suit running around. So much so I bet my roommate $40 it is and we’re planning a roadtrip to Prescott, Arizona this weekend to find out once and for all. And if my roommate just so happens to win and wind up buried in the desert, well, I’ll edit this post so it can’t be used against me in a court of law. OR outlaws. *firing pistols in air* DON’T SCREENSHOT IT.
Keep going for Charlie running around hollerin’ at chicks.
Source: Geekologie – Charlie The Chicken Struttin’ That Ass Around The Barnyard In Sweet Blue Pants
Riot Games Co-Founder And League of Legends Team Owner Clash Over Cash
League of Legends earned publisher Riot Games $1.6 billion in revenue last year, but a public debate between community leaders is shedding light on how game’s competitive players are financially vulnerable. Arguing over who deserves blame, Riot Games’ co-founder and a prominent League of Legends team owner are duking it out on public forums this week.
Source: Kotaku – Riot Games Co-Founder And League of Legends Team Owner Clash Over Cash
The Sight of Chris Hemsworth's Body Convinced John Krasinski Not to Be Captain America
It’s hard to imagine after years of Chris Evans in the role that John Krasinski was at one point incredibly
close
to becoming Marvel Studio’s Captain America. Krasinski dropped out at pretty much the final hurdle, but according to him, the reason he knew he wouldn’t get it? Chris Hemsworth’s abs.
Source: io9 – The Sight of Chris Hemsworth’s Body Convinced John Krasinski Not to Be Captain America
Make Your Vacation Feel Longer With Some Basic Cognitive Psychology
If you’ve ever had a week-long vacation that felt like it only lasted a couple days, it’s probably because you did a little too much planning and not enough living in the moment.
Source: LifeHacker – Make Your Vacation Feel Longer With Some Basic Cognitive Psychology
French official threatens lawsuits over internet photos of police
Source: Engadget – French official threatens lawsuits over internet photos of police
Photo: Cute little pika will melt your heart
Those ears!
Source: TreeHugger – Photo: Cute little pika will melt your heart
A Startup Backed By Peter Thiel Makes Bankrolling Civil Lawsuits Easy
In courtrooms across America, investors are making money through litigation financing. The process allows investors to cover the cost of a lawsuit in exchange for a share of the financial settlement.
Source: Gizmodo – A Startup Backed By Peter Thiel Makes Bankrolling Civil Lawsuits Easy
Are You This Guy, and Are You Dead?
There's a potentially habitable planet just one star over
Locating potentially habitable planets outside of our own solar system is pretty difficult — and when we do find them, they’re usually unfathomably far away. Today, one isn’t. Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet in the habitable zone of Eart…
Source: Engadget – There’s a potentially habitable planet just one star over
Cloudhead Games Visits Valve
Cloudhead Games, the developer behind the VR title Call of Starseed (our VR review here), documented their recent trip to Valve headquarters. I snagged the images below for those of you that are too lazy to click the link or can’t visit imgur links from work/school.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – Cloudhead Games Visits Valve
MIT Scientists Develop New Wi-Fi That's 330% Faster
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MSN: Scientists at MIT claim to have created a new wireless technology that can triple Wi-Fi data speeds while also doubling the range of the signal. Dubbed MegaMIMO 2.0, the system will shortly enter commercialization and could ease the strain on our increasingly crowded wireless networks. Multiple-input-multiple-output technology, or MIMO, helps networked devices perform better by combining multiple transmitters and receivers that work simultaneously, allowing then to send and receive more than one data signal at the same time. MIT’s MegaMIMO 2.0 works by allowing several routers to work in harmony, transmitting data over the same piece of spectrum. MIT claimed that during tests, MegaMIMO 2.0 was able to increase data transfer speed of four laptops connected to the same Wi-Fi network by 330 percent. Paper co-author Rahul said the technology could also be applied to mobile phone networks to solve similar congestion issues. “In today’s wireless world, you can’t solve spectrum crunch by throwing more transmitters at the problem, because they will all still be interfering with one another,” Ezzeldin Hamed, lead author on a paper on the topic, told MIT News. “The answer is to have all those access points work with each other simultaneously to efficiently use the available spectrum.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – MIT Scientists Develop New Wi-Fi That’s 330% Faster
This Fast & Furious-Star Wars Mash-Up Proves Every Movie Is Better With Lightsabers
Seemingly every Fast & Furious movie builds up to one moment: Vin Diesel fighting the big bad guy. Usually, that big bad guy is also, well, big—someone like the Rock or Jason Statham. And as cool as that moment usually is, a new video proves one word can make it so much better: lightsabers.
Source: io9 – This Fast & Furious-Star Wars Mash-Up Proves Every Movie Is Better With Lightsabers
Snacktaku Unwraps Burger King's Whopperrito
After six decades of serving time-tested favorites that folks seem to enjoy and occasionally screwing about with new french fries
, Burger King has decided it’s time to experiment with Tex-Mex for some godawful reason. So they put most of a Whopper in a soft tortilla. Sure.
Source: Kotaku – Snacktaku Unwraps Burger King’s Whopperrito
How I Stop Myself From Eating Too Much At Restaurants
I didn’t live through the Great Depression even though I sometimes eat as if I did. Despite a desire to keep thin I have a bad habit of clearing every last greasy morsel of rice or supposedly decorative garnish that’s put in front of me. Kicking this habit has helped me feel better about myself.
Source: LifeHacker – How I Stop Myself From Eating Too Much At Restaurants
Zika virus' effects are broader than first thought
The Zika virus is primarily known to cause microcephaly (small heads) in the babies of infected mothers, but its effects may be wider-ranging than first thought. A Harvard-led study has conducted brain scans of 45 Brazilian babies from Zika-stricken…
Source: Engadget – Zika virus’ effects are broader than first thought
2020 Tokyo Olympics medals will be made from metals recovered from e-waste
By reclaiming precious metals from its ‘urban mine’ of obsolete electronics, Japan may be able to produce the medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics from recycled materials.
Source: TreeHugger – 2020 Tokyo Olympics medals will be made from metals recovered from e-waste
Why earn XP when you can buy it? Deus Ex goes ape on microtransactions
Enlarge / Wanna get more in-game currency, weapons, and experience-point boosts in the new Deus Ex game? Pay up, suckers. (credit: Square Enix)
My review of the stellar cyberpunk stealth-adventure game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was based on a retail version, which means it had received a “day-one” patch and contained all of the game’s content… with one exception. The microtransaction system hadn’t yet gone live.
At the time, this shop was limited to DX:MD‘s “Breach” mode, which combines arcade-style challenges and a “card-unlock” system for beefing your character up. This system works similarly to games like Hearthstone, in that you earn new cards and perks through normal gameplay, but since their rewards are random, you may feel compelled to pay money for more random-card unlocks. Also, because you can only equip so many perks at a time, and normal gameplay unlocks a ton of content, you don’t really need to pay into this system to get the full game experience.
It’s not ideal, but I ruled that this kind of microtransaction system was all-in-all tolerable for what was essentially a free bonus mode on top of an already-huge campaign in the retail package. Looks like Eidos Montreal had other ideas, however.
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Source: Ars Technica – Why earn XP when you can buy it? Deus Ex goes ape on microtransactions