Google Glass probably shouldn’t be operated by two-year-olds. The $1,500 hardware seems to be pretty fragile, and I would be afraid that a kid would break it. One father, YouTube user chrisangelini, threw caution to the wind, however, when he let his two-year-old son take Google’s new hardware for a test drive.
As expected, the results are adorable.
[h/t: Reddit]
Jerimiah Clyde Hartline, the man who fled zombies in a stolen truck back in April, has pled guilty after being offered a plea deal.
For those just joining us, Hartline was arrested back in April after he stole a semi-truck and caused a wreck that injured numerous people. The story got weird when he told officers that he was trying to escape zombies that were clinging onto the truck. It was later revealed that he was under the influence of an unnamed substance during the time.
Going back to the plea deal, Hartline pled guilty to charges of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run causing death or injury, and vehicle theft. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of five years. That being said, it’s much better than the original charges which included three counts of causing great bodily injury. The extra charges would have upped the maximum prison sentence to 12 years, but the plea deal saw prosecutors throwing out those charges.
The last remaining question in all of this must be what happened to the strawberries being transported in the semi-truck. Said fruit was reportedly undamaged and donated to local food banks and nonprofits. It just goes to show you that zombie hallucinations not only lead to massive wrecks on the interstate, but free strawberries for lower income families.
[h/t: UT San Diego]
It seems that Nokia is taking a rather novel approach to making sure its devices are on every carrier. Instead of making one phone available on every carrier, it’s building separate, but still largely the same, flagship devices for each major carrier.
After announcing the Lumia 928 for Verizon last week, Nokia announced today that its next flagship device – the Lumia 925 – will be available on T-Mobile later this year. The Lumia 925 is very similar to the Lumia 928 with the only differences seemingly appearing in the camera.
Before we get to that, however, you should know that the Lumia 925 has the same 4.5-inch OLED display that the 928 has. It also features the same 1GB of RAM, 8.7MP camera and 32GB of internal storage.
As for the camera differences, the Lumia 925 features a dual-LED flash – the same on the original Lumia 920. The Lumia 928 went with a Xenon flash instead. The 928 will have the best flash out of the three, but a dual-LED flash isn’t too shabby.
Speaking of cameras, Nokia also announced today new camera software for the Lumia 925 called Smart Camera. As its name implies, it allows users to do some pretty sophisticated photo editing work from within the camera app:
So, when will T-Mobile customers be able to get their hands on the Lumia 925? The carrier isn’t saying yet. The same goes for the price.
[h/t: Engadget]
Last week, internal documents revealed that Microsoft had offered to buy Nook Media from Barnes & Noble for $1 billion. Those same documents also revealed that Nook Media would start to focus more on its software app on other platforms instead of its own hardware. The first step to improving its apps may have come today with the latest update for iOS.
Barnes & Noble announced a newly updated Nook app for iOS that allows customers to purchase and read comics on their iOS device. It’s a nice alternative for iOS device owners who may have found Comixology or the dedicated Marvel app lacking in options. The wide selection of graphic novels is also a nice bonus.
Alongside the addition of comics, the new Nook for iOS app adds the “Zoom View” feature that allows readers to “focus in on individual panels in graphic novels and comics.” Anybody who has tried to read a comic on a tablet or smartphone before knows how painful it can be sometimes so the addition of this feature is welcome.
Here are the other new features now available on Nook for iOS:
“With our free, updated Nook for iOS application, we’re delivering to customers with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch a great optimized reading experience, now with access to Nook Comics, one of the leading collections of digital comics and graphic novels available,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Nook Media LLC. “Using their iOS device, customers can enjoy Nook’s collection of more than 3 million digital books, magazines and newspapers, as well comics and graphic novels with the stunning Zoom View feature.”
To celebrate the comic-centric update, Nook will be giving away a free Superman sampler to all those who upgrade their iOS app. The sampler includes excerpts from Superman: Last Son of Krypton, Superman: For Tomorrow, Superman: Earth One, and Justice League Volume 1: Origin. It’s no Free Comic Book Day, but it’s still a nice gesture.
You can grab the newly updated Nook for iOS app here.
Would you pay $325,000 for a burger? Probably not. It’s hard to get anybody to pay more than a dollar for a burger these days, but one researcher hopes that its $325,000 burger will one day be cheap enough for the mass market.
The New York Times has a fascinating report on Dr. Post, a researcher that is attempting to make the first in vitro hamburger. In other words, he is growing edible beef in a petri dish. It’s real beef too as it’s grown from actual beef cells collected from cows.
Dr. Post and his research team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands are almost ready to present the first lab grown burger to the world. It’s comprised of 20,000 strips of lab grown muscle tissue combined together to form a single burger. The cost of those 20,000 strips is the aforementioned $325,000 provided by an anonymous donor with the final result being prepared for an event in London.
So, why exactly are we creating “fake” meat? There’s beef made from cow that millions around the world enjoy every day, and then there’s soy-based burgers for vegetarians and vegans. What need could in vitro meat possibly fulfill? In short, it’s more of an environmental move as cows meant for slaughter consume untold amounts of grain and water every year. By reducing the amount of cows needed for meat production, we could increase the amount of water and grain that can go to impoverished countries instead.
It also has the potential to be a healthier alternative to beef cut from a cow. Although, the health benefits may be outright ignored as people come to grips with the idea of eating food that’s grown in a lab. Some would argue that it’s not much different than eating beef from cows that have been injected with artificial growth hormones, but it will take time for consumers to get used to the idea of eating in vitro meat.
That being said, the meat being prepared by Dr. Post and his team won’t be in supermarkets for quite some time. Somebody this year will get to eat the first lab grown hamburger, but they will have to pay $325,000 for the opportunity. Until that price can be reduced to less than $10 for a pack of eight patties, you’re not going to see meat labeled as lab grown.
Ever since its announcement, we knew that the latest Assassin’s Creed title – Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – would have pirates playing a large role in the narrative. None of the trailers, until now that is, have really played up that fact.
In a new trailer released today, Ubisoft says that its lastest Assassin’s Creed title will present the true stories of the pirates who controlled the Atlantic Ocean in the 18th century. That’s a somewhat dubious claim as past titles in the franchise took great liberties with its historical figures. It’s probably not going to be as true to life as Sid Meier’s Pirates!, but it looks to be a fun romp in a theme that’s underutilized in games.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be out on October 29 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U. It will also launch on the PS4 and next Xbox on or near their respective launch dates.
Google Glass is now in the hands of developers, and they’re already doing some pretty amazing (and scary) things with the technology. What will it look like a year from now, however, when it’s in the hands of consumers? What will it look like five years from now? One design firm has an idea.
Playground Inc, a digital creative agency, has released a video with a few predictions of what will be in the next major iteration of Google Glass:
It seems strange that the designers predict Google Glass having a 911 app, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Having someone not only to talk to, but also see, would go a long way in calming people down during an emergency.
That particular example aside, the rest of the video presents some incredibly compelling ideas that would turn Glass from a device for pasty white nerds into a mass consumer device that fulfills any and all needs. I’m particularly fond of the example where one uses Glass to keep a running tally of how much groceries are going to cost while shopping.
[h/t: Reddit]
If you’re like me, you’ve probably already used up most of the free 5GB Google provides to Google Drive users. You may even be thinking about upgrading. You might want to hold off on that as Google is about to upgrade everybody for free.
Google announced today that its unifying storage across Gmail, Google+ photos and Google Drive accounts. To be specific, Google account holders now have 15GB to store all of their content across all three services. Here’s how Google describes it:
With this new combined storage space, you won’t have to worry about how much you’re storing and where. For example, maybe you’re a heavy Gmail user but light on photos, or perhaps you were bumping up against your Drive storage limit but were only using 2 GB in Gmail. Now it doesn’t matter, because you can use your storage the way you want.
Google is also updating its Google Drive storage page to better reflect how much data is being used across all three services. By hovering over the pie chart, it will bring up how much data each service is using:
As you can see in the above image, Google will soon be eliminating the option to upgrade to 25GB of storage for $2.49 a month. With the move to 15GB of unified storage, Google Drive users can upgrade to either 100GB for $4.99 a month, or 200GB for $9.99 a month.
This all sounds well and good, but what about Google Apps users? Google didn’t forget about its enterprise customers as it will be giving them 30GB of unified storage across Google Drive, Gmail and Google+ photos. As always, files created in Docs, Sheets and Slides won’t count against the limit, and only photos larger than 2048px will count towards the limit on Google+.
Regular Google account holders and Google Apps users will both start seeing the new unified storage system show up in their accounts over the coming weeks.
Driverless cars have some people spooked, but most are incredibly supportive of anything that makes the roads safer. Congress wants to make sure of that with a hearing scheduled for this week.
The Hill reports that the Senate Commerce Committee will be holding a hearing on driverless cars on Wednesday to take a look at all of the issues currently surrounding the technology. The hearing will touch upon safety benefits, the risks associated with driverless cars, and what impact, if any, legalizing driverless cars will have on current policies.
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller told the Hill that the hearing will focus on making sure driverless cares are safe:
“It’s vital that Congress understand the safety benefits, but we must make sure that these systems are reliable and secure, and don’t add to the numerous distractions already in cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also must have the capabilities to oversee the safety of new vehicle technology.”
Driverless cars won’t be the only technology brought up either. The Committee will take a look at the recent trend of smartphone integration into vehicles. Some are concerned that having access to Pandora and other smartphone apps in cars will lead to more distracted driving – an already dangerous habit of many American drivers.
There’s no word yet on who’s going to be represented at the hearing, but it’s a good bet that somebody from Google’s driverless car program will be present. The company has been investing quite a bit into the technology over the past few years, and has even managed to legalize the cars in California, Nevada, Florida and Texas. It would appear that Congress wants to ascertain the safety of the vehicles before they become legal in more states.
We can only hope that somebody will bring up Google’s almost spotless track record during the hearing. The cars have driven over a collective 300,000 miles, and have only been involved in two accidents. Furthermore, those two accidents were caused when human control was introduced.
At PAX East, Gearbox revealed that Borderlands 2 would be getting a new playable character called Krieg the Psycho. He was described as a melee heavy class that isn’t afraid to get a little hurt. The new character pack is now almost upon us, and Gearbox has released a lengthy trailer detailing Krieg’s skill trees.
Unlike the other classes in Borderlands 2, Krieg is a high risk/high reward character. His skills are all about putting yourself in the line of fire in return for big damage. Some players are obviously going to love it while others may not want to take the risk. That’s the beauty of Borderlands 2 though – there’s a class for every play style.
The Psycho Pack will be available on Tuesday, May 14, for $9.99.
I would never want to be a Stormtrooper. They seem to die far too much for my liking. Now, I wouldn’t mind having my face put onto a custom Stormtrooper figurine. If you feel the same way, you might want to hit up Disney’s Hollywood Studios this summer.
Disney announced that it’s bringing back its popular attraction from last year that scans a person’s face to put onto a custom Star Wars themed mini-figurine. Visitors will be able to have their face put onto either a Stormtrooper or a person frozen in carbonite this year.
Those who visit Disney Hollywood Studios can hit up the Darth Mall (get it?) and have their face scanned by the world’s highest-resolution, single-shot 3D face scanner. The process takes about 10 minutes, and then Disney ships the image off to its 3D printing facility to have a custom figurine created. The figurine is shipped to your home, and should arrive in seven to eight weeks.
Here’s a video showing the process used last year to create custom carbonite figurines. A similar process will be used for this year’s Stormtrooper figurines:
It costs $99.95 to have your face scanned onto a Stormtrooper or frozen carbonite victim. The opportunity to have your face scanned will only be offered during Star Wars Weekends starting on May 17 and taking place on every weekend after until June 9. As such, demand will be great and you will have to make an appointment.
Still, it’s a small price to pay to have yourself immortalized as one the galaxy’s most incompetent soldiers.
[h/t: VentureBeat]
Before XCOM: Enemy Unknown rebooted the classic strategy franchise and proved that strategy games can still be mainstream hits, 2K was attempting to reboot the franchise with a first-person shooter that was simply titled XCOM. That game has been scrapped in favor of a tactical third person shooter called The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
2K has released a new trailer for the title that features some gameplay that shows off the new tactical elements and the new third person perspective. It looks like your basic cover shooter with some tactical elements pulled out of games like Ghost Recon.
It doesn’t look like a BioShock clone anymore, but some fans will undoubtedly feel a little icky about their favorite strategy series being turned into a third-person shooter. It’s a good thing then that strategy fans still have their Enemy Unknown that did well enough to maybe earn a sequel while shooter fans may discover a love for the strategy game after playing The Bureau.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified launches August 20 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
People are expecting big things out of this year’s Google I/O. Last year’s conference introduced the world to Glass, the Nexus 7 and the ill-fated Nexus Q. What could Google possibly do to top that? It seems that they aren’t even going to try.
In an interview with Wired, Android and Chrome boss Sundar Pichai, who had just recently taken over Android from Andy Rubin, said that this year’s Google I/O is going to focus on developers, and what Google can do for them:
It’s going to be different. It’s not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system. Both on Android and Chrome, we’re going to focus this I/O on all of the kinds of things we’re doing for developers, so that they can write better things. We will show how Google services are doing amazing things on top of these two platforms.
Pichai’s wording implies that not only are we not going to see any hardware announcements, but we also won’t be seeing any new versions of Android announced at the show either. Both seem at odds with rumors and speculation from the past few months that suggested Google would be showing both a new version of Jelly Bean and a new Nexus 7 at the annual conference.
It would seem strange to not announce at least a new version of Android at I/O, but Google may be holding off on that for a separate event later this year. We also can’t ignore the possibility that Pichai is intentionally misleading us.
Either way, we’ll know for sure on Wednesday when Google I/O kicks off with a three hour keynote beginning at 9 a.m. PST/12 p.m. EST.
[h/t: Engadget]
Early last week, Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed realized his dream of a fully 3D printed gun with the Liberator – a handgun that can fire a single bullet. The blueprints for the Liberator were taken down by the government four days later, but those determined to 3D print a gun can still access the files. That’s exactly what two British journalists did over the weekend.
The Daily Mail’s Simon Murphy and Russel Myers created the Liberator on Friday, and then attempted to sneak it on board on an Eurostar train from London to Paris. Surprisingly, the two smuggled the gun on board the train without being stopped.
Of course, they couldn’t just carry the full gun through security checkpoints with them. Murphy and Meyers split the 3D printed gun into three separate pieces, and then hid those pieces in their clothing. They walked through the metal detector without setting it off, and were never subjected to a pat down. It should be noted that the two men didn’t smuggle bullets or the firing pin on board, but such small metal objects can be easily concealed when going through security checkpoints.
Once they were on board the train, they assembled the gun in less than 30 seconds. Afterwards, the two began to take pictures of themselves holding the gun next to other passengers. Said fellow passengers were none the wiser.
After their little adventure, Murphy and Meyers alerted UK politicians and security experts about the potential for people to smuggle 3D printed weapons on board public transportation. As expected, both groups expressed shock and concern. Former Labor security minister Lord West said that security checks need to be improved so they can detect 3D printed and other undetectable weapons.
The above scenario was a single test on a single train line. It will be interesting to see if anybody else tries to smuggle the Liberator or any other 3D printed weapon on board other train lines, or even an airplane. I would think that in the U.S., what with the TSA’s penchant for pat downs, smuggling the Liberator on board a plan would be especially difficult. Of course, agents would have to know what a disassembled 3D printed gun looks like, and therein lies the potential danger.
People were already scared of 3D printed guns, but this story will probably take everybody’s fears to the next level. I wouldn’t be surprised if a congressman called for a ban on 3D printers, but we’ve already talked about how stupid that idea is.
[Image: Daily Mail]
It was announced last week that Eternal Darkness, the celebrated survival-horror game for the Gamecube, would be getting a spiritual sequel on the Wii U and PC called Shadow of the Eternals. At the time, we only got a short teaser trailer, but now the team at Precursor Games have released a proper (and lengthy) gameplay trailer.
The team at Precursor Games has forgone the likes of Kickstarter in favor of its own crowdfunding campaign. The team is asking for $1.5 million to develop the first episode out of 12 planned episodes, but it’s only been able to raise about $134,000 thus far.
Gamers’ reluctance to put money forward could have something to do with the sordid reputation Silicon Knights and its president, Denis Dyack, have gained over the last few years. Precursor Games is made of many former Silicon Knights staffers, including Dyack. The studio has recently gone on record saying that it understands the skepticism, and says that it’s working “to show everyone that Precursor is a totally new entity.”
If the crowdfunding campaign is successful, you can expect to see Shadow of the Eternals on the Wii U and PC at some point in 2014.
By now, you surely know that Jodi Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. The case had captured the attention of America, but we won’t see the conclusion until a sentence is handed down. The sentencing has been delayed, though, so why don’t you watch a recap of the verdict from everybody’s favorite Taiwanese animators at NMA while you wait.
Windows Phone fans on Verizon were disappointed last year to learn that the Nokia Lumia 920, ‘the” Windows Phone to have, would be exclusive to AT&T. They had to settle for the underpowered Lumia 820 or go with HTC’s 8X line. Good things come to those who wait, however, and that wait will soon be over.
Nokia announced today that its bringing an updated version of the Lumia 920 exclusively to Verizon. The new hardware is called the Lumia 928, and it features a number of new features that may have AT&T subscribers feeling a tinge of jealousy.
The Nokia Lumia 928 comes equipped with a 4.5-inch OLED display with a 1280×768 resolution, 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, and an 8.7MP camera compete with Xenon flash. It also features the same image stabilization software that made the original Lumia 920 a hit with AT&T subscribers.
“Whether you’re attending a party, a concert or a sporting event with friends, the Nokia Lumia 928 excels at capturing high-quality video, audio and blur-free photos of life’s most share-worthy moments,” said Matt Rothschild, vice president, Nokia North America. “Verizon Wireless customers, we heard you and the wait is over – we’re excited to offer a Nokia flagship smartphone, specially designed and optimized for the nation’s largest 4G LTE network.”
Those looking for a more visual tour of the phone can check out the below video from Nokia:
Despite having been announced almost a year ago, we haven’t seen much gameplay from Watch Dogs. Ubisoft prefers to trot out the same gameplay footage we’ve been seeing since February whenever they show it off to the press. That all changed this week with a new gameplay demo.
Official PlayStation Magazine was able to sit down with a new gameplay demo that features a gameplay element that we haven’t seen yet. The demo reveals that players will have to take over local bases before they can hack electronic devices in a district.
The above demo is running on a PC, but it’s said to be running on next-gen specs. In other words, the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox version of Watch Dogs should match what you’re seeing above.
Watch Dogs will launch on November 19 for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. It will also be out on the PS4 and the next Xbox on or near their respective launches.
It was really only a matter of time.
The United States Department of Defense Trade Controls has demanded that Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed pull the blueprints for the first fully 3D printed gun from Defcad. Wanting to stay on the right side of the law, Wilson has complied. The following message, accompanied by the Department of State seal, is on the Liberator page at Defcad:
This file has been removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.
None of this is too surprising really. Alongside the Liberator, the government also requested that Wilson pull the blueprints for the other components that Defense Distributed has made over the past few months. The government will be examining the Liberator and the components to see if they comply with the ITAR, or International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
It’s not known when, or if, the files will be back up on Defcad. That being said, it’s not like the files have been completely removed from the Internet. That’s all but impossible. Over 100,000 people downloaded the file since going up earlier this week, and it’s already being hosted on a number of other Web sites, including The Pirate Bay. Those who want to download the blueprints will be able to do so regardless of any action taken by the government.
While we wait for the government to make its final say on whether The Liberator violates the ITAR, check out this partially 3D printed longbow:
[h/t: Forbes]
Nick Offerman, who plays the ever charming Ron Swanson on Parks & Recreation, has brought joy to many people with his reading of inane celebrity tweets on Conan. He’s now back with more tweets from Katy Perry, Amanda Bynes and others.