Posts Tagged ‘future’
Future proofing: Xbox One to support 3D and 4K content
Author: Stefanie Jenkins
The Xbox One is a next-generation console, and as such, it’s built with some future proofing in mind. It can do things you’re not quite ready for just yet, such as play back 4K resolution games, movies, and TV. And it’ll support 3D visuals too, despite the fact that 3D in the home has yet to catch in any meaningful way when it comes to TV, movies, or games. Microsoft noted that the new console would support 4K at the Xbox One launch event on Monday, but 3D support was kept under wraps until Xbox spokesman Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb mentioned it in a Wednesday Yahoo chat session.
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‘Who Owns The Future?’ Jaron Lanier thinks Google and the government should pay for your data
Author: Alexander McQueen
In Who Owns the Future?, Jaron Lanier, the computer scientist and musician who became the face of virtual reality in the 1990s, pins the devolution and ultimate destruction of the Western middle class on accelerating technological change, and on the internet in particular. He then suggests a way to re-engineer our networked world to recreate a middle class. His critique of the conditions that led to America’s economic crisis, while flawed, is mostly a sharp and enjoyable read. The last 150 pages (nearly half of the book) dedicated to the solution, however, get bogged down in the contingencies of something that will never occur.
Lanier would have done better with a blast of pure pessimism or by embracing far simpler and more probable…
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HTC in disarray: staff departures, ‘disastrous’ First, and production problems cloud company’s future
Author: Markus Smith
HTC CEO Peter Chou
The Verge has learned that HTC’s Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC’s overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One.
It’s not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession — most recently Jason Gordon, the company’s vice president of global communications. Other fresh departures include global retail marketing manager Rebecca Rowland, director of digital marketing John Starkweather, and product strategy manager Eric Lin.
It’s not a coordinated poaching effort that’s draining HTC’s Seattle-based North American operations….
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Tags: Cloud, company's, departures, disarray, Disastrous, first, future, problems, Production, staff | 
No Comments »The Smithsonian is 3D-scanning its collection for future generations
Author: JohnnyBells
The Smithsonian has been experimenting with 3D scanning for some time now, using tools like laser arm scanners to map models of whale fossils and other ancient artifacts. Now the museum is utilizing the technology to preserve its collection for posterity. Its “laser cowboys” Vince Rossi and Adam Metallo are working full-time to record items for future generations, as part of an extensive effort to digitize 14 million prioritized objects (a list that also includes artwork and lab specimen). After the break, check out a video of the team working to preserve a digital copy of the Philadelphia gunboat, America’s oldest fighting vessel.
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What is the future of net? What would you like it to be?
Author: Jon Mitchell
Question by Cowboy: What is the future of net? What would you like it to be?
Today we talk to persons from everywhere withou knowing them. We chance infos, musics, programs, images. But how about the future? What would you like to be?
Best answer:
Answer by Srikumar
expecting more
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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CyanogenMod 10.1 hits Release Candidate, nears a ‘stable’ future
Author: Christen Arquette
If you’re a fan of CyanogenMod, there’s a good chance that flashing nightly builds of the 10.1 release is now damn near second nature. Fortunately, a more stable future is in store for you and your phone, as CyanogenMod has revealed that a final release is close at hand. As a buildup to that point, you’ll find that Release Candidate builds are now available for installation. For the uninitiated, CyanogenMod 10.1 is based on Android 4.2.2, and along with many additional features, it serves as a great way to upgrade your device in the case that its manufacturer has given up. Hit the break for the complete list of devices to receive the Release Candidate treatment.
Source: CyanogenMod
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Valve experiments with players’ sweat response, eye-tracking controls for future game design
Author: Brittany Turner
Valve has a surprisingly varied staff roster. Mike Ambinder is the company’s very own experimental psychologist and he’s been outlining some of Valve’s work with biofeedback technology, including eye-motion controls for Portal 2 and perspiration-based gaming adjustments on Left 4 Dead. Mentioning these developments at the NeuroGaming Conference last week, Ambinder notes that both are still at an experimental stage, but that “there is potential on both sides of the equation, both for using physiological signals to quantify an emotion [and] what you can do when you incorporate physiological signals into the gameplay itself.”
In Left 4 Dead, test subjects had their sweat monitored, with values assigned to how much they were responding to the action. This data was fed back into the game, where designers attempted to modify (and improve) the experience. In a test where players had four minutes to shoot 100 enemies, calmer participants would progress normally, but if they got nervous, the game would speed up and they would have less time to shoot. When it came to the eye-tracking iteration of Portal 2, the new controls apparently worked well, but also necessitated separating aiming and viewpoint to ensure it worked. With Valve already involving itself in wearable computing, it should make both notions easier to accomplish if it decides to bring either experiment to fans. Venture Beat managed to record Ambinder’s opening address at the conference — we’ve added it after the break.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Venture Beat
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Tags: controls, Design, Experiments, eyetracking, future, Game, players, response, Sweat, valve |
No Comments »EA scores exclusive rights to develop future Star Wars games
Author: Jade Kim
Electronic Arts and Disney announced a multi-year agreement today that will see future Star Wars video games exclusively developed and published by EA. This news comes a little over a month after the house of mouse made the decision to stop internal development at LucasArts. EA’s developers scheduled to take on the Star Wars universe include DICE (Battlefield), Visceral (Dead Space) and BioWare, the latter of which will continue development of its already released Star Wars MMO (The Old Republic). The financial terms of the agreement have yet to be disclosed, but EA will create games for a “core gaming audience” while Disney will produce casual titles for mobile and social outlets. Now that the force is strong with EA, our fingers are crossed for a new installment in the KOTOR franchise.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Joystiq
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Distro Issue 89: With Google Glass, is the future of wearable computing finally in sight?
Author: Melissa Shroeder
Google has begun shipping the Explorer Edition of its high-tech headset to a select few over the past week. In a brand new edition of our e-magazine, Tim Stevens gives Google Glass the full review treatment, chronicles life behind the lens for a week and sits down with Google Ventures’ Bill Maris for a chat on the device. We also get cozy with Google Now for iOS in Hands-On, ogle more of Mission Workshop’s goods in Eyes-On and PlayJam CEO Jasper Smith tackles the Q&A. You can probably take it from here, but just in case, all of the download sources are down below for snatchin’ up a copy.
Distro Issue 89 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro in the Windows Store
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter
Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile
Source: iTunes, Google Play, Windows Store
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The Ressence Type 3 Is The Liquid-Filled Watch Of The Future
Author: Dave Adams
Because I like sharing cool watches with you guys I decided to share this cool watch with you guys. It’s called the Ressence Type 3 and it’s actually a liquid-filled mechanical watch with a nearly featureless face. Each of those dials – registers in the parlance – look like they are seamlessly embedded in the face surface and the watch, being suspended in synthetic oil, has no crown and is wound automatically.
Arguably the movement itself isn’t very special – it’s a standard timekeeper that displays the date and includes a rotating seconds wheel – but the way the entire package is put together is a feat of horology. The sapphire crystal surrounds the face almost completely and the back of the watch hides the manual winding mechanism and a switch that allows you to change the time.
On the wrist, the watch looks like a blob of liquid with markings suspended in it. It’s as if you were wearing a slug of liquid metal or a dollop of crude oil. The entire face spins (you can see it in action here) and a pressure valve compensates for temperature-related changes in the liquid.
You can see hands-on photos right here or visit the product page. The watch, sadly, costs $ 34,000 and comes in a wildly limited edition but it may be worth it just to say that your watch is literally full of alien liquids.
