Blog

Oculus makes it easier to play with friends in VR

[ad_1]

Oculus has introduced a couple of timely features for its platform to help you stay connected with friends — or find new ones — even as you continue social distancing. First, the Facebook subsidiary has expanded the Parties experience, so you can be in a VR voice call with a larger group. The new Public Party feature can accommodate up to eight participants at a time, and they don’t all have to be part of your friends list. True to its name, even strangers can join your chat if you leave it public.

After you’re done making new friends, you can use Oculus’ other new feature called Travel Together to jump to supported experiences with each other. Travel Together allows groups to enter social experiences directly without having to go through menus or waiting for friends to join. It doesn’t work for all Oculus apps and games yet, but so far, supported titles include Echo VR, Racket: Nx, Synth Riders, Eleven Table Tennis, Elven Assassin, Epic Roller Coasters, Arizona Sunshine, Cloudlands 2, Spaceteam VR, Ironlights, Multiverse and Pro Putt by Topgolf.

[ad_2]

Source link

SpaceX pulls off its first double fairing catch after a Falcon 9 launch

[ad_1]

Part of the SpaceX mission has been to create reusable rockets that make spaceflight cheaper, and it has become routine to see the company’s booster rockets return safely to Earth. With today’s launch SpaceX set a new milestone by catching both halves of the nosecone fairing, according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk.

He’s previously said the parts are worth about $6 million, and while the company has reused some after they landed in the sea or a ship caught one half, it’s potentially cheaper to get them back undamaged if both fall into a net.



[ad_2]

Source link

Wrist-mounted wearable tracks your hand in 3D using thermal sensors

[ad_1]

The scientists who created the device say it’s the first such system to look at the contours of the wrist. Also noteworthy here is the use of thermal imaging. Previous research in the area focused almost exclusively on traditional cameras, often to less than spectacular results. Prototypes developed by scientists in the past were bulky, difficult to use and could only distinguish between a couple of specific hand gestures. FingerTrack, meanwhile, can accurately track the position of the fingers even when the person wearing it is holding an object in their hand. 

While the technology could have a variety of applications, one of the more promising ones has to do with sign language translation. The team also sees a future in which FingerTrak could be used to detect the early signs of cognitive disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It may also have virtual reality uses.

The usual caveat that comes with any recent research project applies here. It could be years before the team that created FingerTrak finds a way to commercialize their invention. However, what’s promising here is that the device employs affordable components and is already highly accurate.

[ad_2]

Source link

Adobe taps former Pixel exec to build a universal camera app

[ad_1]

After leaving Google in March, Marc Levoy, the imaging expert who helped create some of the Pixel lineup’s most important computational photography features, has landed at Adobe. In an email, the Photoshop-maker said Levoy will “spearhead company-wide technology initiatives focused on computational photography and emerging products, centered on the concept of a universal camera app.”

Precisely what that universal camera app will entail Adobe hasn’t said yet. However, the company notes Levoy will work with its Photoshop Camera, Adobe Research, Sensei and Digital Imaging teams. As The Verge notes, Adobe’s Photoshop Camera and Lightroom apps already include camera functionality. It’s possible a universal camera app could be something that’s available on both Android and iOS devices.  

[ad_2]

Source link

Microsoft migrates ‘Minecraft’ from Amazon Web Services to its own Azure

[ad_1]

“Mojang Studios has used AWS in the past, but we’ve been migrating all cloud services to Azure over the last few years,” a spokesperson for the company told CNBC. “We’ll be fully transitioned to Azure by the end of the year.”

The move makes a lot of sense for Microsoft. With 126 million monthly active players, Minecraft is one of the most popular games on the planet. The Azure division has also been a consistent performer for Microsoft. In Q2 2020, the company said the division’s revenue increased by 27 percent year over year. Even if only a fraction of those 127 million players pay for Minecraft Realms, that’s still less money going to Microsoft’s main competitor in the cloud space. You may wonder then why Microsoft waited more than five years after it acquired Mojang to move Minecraft to Azure. The answer is the company didn’t mess with the studio’s culture.

“It would be easy for a large organization to come in and say: ‘Hey, we’re going to show you how it’s done. We’re going to get you off this Java code. We’re going to get things moved over to C. We’re going to get you off Amazon Web Services and over to Azure,'” said Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz in which the executive talked about what the company learned from its acquisition of Mojang. “But it’s important to realize that the conditions that created Minecraft, how it came to be, are likely to be things that are difficult to recreate within a more corporate structure.”

If you care more about the games Microsoft publishes than its bottom line, that kind of culture is a good sign about what’s to come.

[ad_2]

Source link

Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ has been delayed indefinitely

[ad_1]

Warner Bros. and Nolan still harbor hopes of bringing it to theaters this year, however. “We will share a new 2020 release date imminently for Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s wholly original and mind-blowing feature,” the studio’s chairman Toby Emmerich told Variety in a statement. “We are not treating Tenet like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that.”

Warner Bros. will be flexible with its rollout plans, Variety reported, ultimately meaning that people in other countries could see the movie before the studio releases it domestically. There may even be staggered release dates within the US, starting in select cities where officials have deemed it enough safe to allow theaters to reopen. In any case, we’ll find out more about the release plans soon enough.

[ad_2]

Source link

Get $20 off both Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite right now

[ad_1]

Buy Kindle bundle at Amazon – $70

Kindles are, by far, the most popular e-readers you can get and they make it easy to take your entire library with you wherever you go. While we might not be traveling too far right now, it’s certainly easier to carry a bunch of titles on an e-reader out to your porch or to your local park than it is to do so with a stack of paperbacks. Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite earned a score of 95 from us thanks to its compact, waterproof design, improved contrast display and new Audible support. Now you can take audiobooks from Audible with you in addition to e-books and listen to them directly from the Paperwhite. Kindle Unlimited includes some Audible narrations as well, so you can listen to those at no extra cost if you choose the bundle.

The regular Kindle is a great alternative if you’re on a budget. We gave it a score of 91 for its smaller and sleeker design, higher-quality display and a new front light that makes reading in darker environments much easier. It’s not waterproof, nor does it support Audible listening, but those are premium features that not everyone will need (or want) to pay extra for.

It’s worth noting that these sale prices aren’t the lowest ever we’ve seen on these Kindles by themselves. If you’re holding out for the best deal on just the e-readers, you’ll probably want to wait until Amazon Prime Day later this year or the holiday shopping season. You’ll also have to deal with the ads Amazon serves up to Kindle home screens as both deals are for the ad-supported models. However, these are good deals if you’ve had your eye on a new e-reader for a while and want to test out Kindle Unlimited for free. Just keep in mind that the subscription will auto-renew at $10 per month once the free three-month trial is up.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.



[ad_2]

Source link

Logic signs seven-figure Twitch deal days after ‘retiring’ from music

[ad_1]

However, that retirement appears to have been short-lived as Twitch announced on Monday that Logic will be the site’s first official music partner. “Logic will stream weekly on his Twitch channel which will include a mixture of in-studio sessions, special guests, AMA style formats, and gaming,” the company wrote in a press release.

“I’m not this rapper guy, man,” Logic told The Verge in a recent interview. “I’m just a nerd. I love video games. I’m blessed enough to have millions of fans and followers. So it is a great partnership.” He declined to specify exactly how much the deal was valued at but did note that it is in the seven-figure range.

Logic’s first stream is set for Tuesday, July 21st at 5pm ET, when he’ll debut tracks off of the upcoming album.



[ad_2]

Source link

‘Overcooked: All You Can Eat’ offers next-gen remasters with new features

[ad_1]

Overcooked: All You Can Eat includes overhauled visuals, with 4K resolution and 60 frames-per-second options, as well as faster loading times. The development team rebuilt the first game using the Overcooked 2 engine.

For the first time, you can play the original Overcooked online with your friends and other folks. It won’t matter if you all have the same console either, as Overcooked: All You Can Eat will include cross-play multiplayer. Those are solid updates, as Overcooked is all about co-op play, and the more games that offer cross-play, the better.

Ghost Town and publisher Team17 noted the bundle will have more accessibility options and an assist mode. You’ll be able to skip levels, increase the time limit on a given stage and give yourself more time to fulfill orders before they time out. There will also be color-blindness options, “a scalable user interface” and “dyslexic-friendly text.”

There’s no release date as yet, in part because Sony and Microsoft have yet to reveal exactly when PS5 and Xbox Series X will go on sale beyond sometime this holiday season. When it does come out, you’ll have the option of picking up Overcooked: All You Can Eat either digitally or as a physical edition.

[ad_2]

Source link

‘Monument Valley’ studio reveals ‘Alba: a Wildlife Adventure’

[ad_1]

Ustwo Games is ready to reveal its next project. The independent studio, best known for the M. C. Escher-inspired Monument Valley puzzlers, is hard at work on a nature-focused title called Alba: a Wildlife Adventure. An ever-so-brief teaser trailer starts with a panning shot over a water bottle, half-eaten sandwich, notebook and backpack. The virtual camera then passes over a sheet of paper titled ‘Island clean up Initiative,’ a bird-spotting book and DSLR, some photographs and, finally, a newspaper with the headline ‘Girls start a wildlife league.’ Finally, it pans out to reveal the titular character on a cliff, overlooking a colorful forest and beach.

In a brief press release, the team said the game was “inspired by the team’s love of nature” and “fond memories of childhood summers in the Mediterranean.” For now, the studio is staying hush-hush about the gameplay and larger story. It did reveal, however, that the title will be coming to iOS, MacOS, tvOS, PC and consoles (no word on which) this winter. The game follows the Facebook-exclusive Go Go Bots, as well as Assemble With Care — a gorgeous Apple Arcade original that has since been released on Steam and updated with a free epilogue level — and Land’s End, an immersive adventure built for Gear VR and Oculus Go headsets.

[ad_2]

Source link