Peter's Quasi-Daily Blah-g

https://www.legitreviews.com/google-expected-to-make-big-gaming-announcement-this-week_210994

via Legit Reviews Hardware Articles https://ift.tt/2Y6Fy3O

March 18, 2019 at 09:10AM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/17/ikea-makes-furniture-more-accessible-with-3d-printing/

If you live with disabilities, shopping for furniture can be difficult. Many common furniture items aren’t designed with accessibility in mind, and those that are can be rare or non-existent. IKEA Israel has a technological solution: 3D print pieces that make them easier to use. The store has collaborated with Milbat on ThisAbles, a project that provides 3D-printed add-ons for furniture that can be tough to use with certain conditions. Among the 13 initial items are easier-to-grab handles, bumpers to protect cabinets and lifts to raise couches.

You’ll have to visit an Israeli IKEA store to see the items in person, and you can only buy ready-made items through Milbat. However, you don’t even have to buy anything if you have a 3D printer and some filament — the designs are available to make for free. You can even ask for customizations in case the designs don’t fit your third-party furniture. This is less about profit and more about encouraging furniture makers to consider accessibility as an important feature, whether it’s built into a given design or available as an extra.

Via: Washington Post

Source: ThisAbles

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 17, 2019 at 07:03AM

https://gizmodo.com/indian-scientists-measure-1-3-billion-volt-thunderstorm-1833328768

Scientists in India observed the highest-voltage thunderstorm ever documented with the help of a subatomic particle you might not hear much about: the muon.

Read more…

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

March 15, 2019 at 02:33PM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/15/stanley-robotics-robot-valets-airport-france/

After a few years of testing its robot valets, Stanley Robotics will officially put its fleet to use at France’s Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport this week. If you plan to park in the robot-lot anytime soon, you’ll leave your car in a special garage-like box. One of Stanley’s robots will literally pick up your car and deliver it to a spot. When you return, the system will use your flight information to determine when to bring your car back to a box, where you can pick it up and drive off. As the company says, that should mean no waiting or searching the parking lot.

These self-driving, robo-valets look like large, rectangular boxes, about the width of a small SUV. They essentially act as a forklift, sliding metal arms underneath your car to lift it by the tires. Stanley Robotics told The Verge the system is much more efficient at parking than humans are — though that’s not exactly a high bar. The robot valets can fit 50 percent more cars in the same area, by parking them closer together and a few cars deep.

For now, Stanley Robotics will cover 500 parking spaces, but the company told The Verge it eventually wants to service 6,000 spots. There’s no word yet if the company will launch this at other airports, but it has held trial runs at Düsseldorf International Airport in Germany and Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. Another test is planned for London’s Gatwick airport later this year.

Source: The Verge, Stanley Robotics

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 15, 2019 at 11:09AM

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1473919

In a major expansion to its years-old in-home game-streaming efforts, Valve announced today that Steam users can now stream games from their PC gaming libraries to devices outside the home as well.

The Steam Link Anywhere program, launched in beta today, lets users stream games from “any computer running Steam” to:

The only requirements for today’s “early beta” release,

according to the announcement

, are that “your computer has good upload speed and your Steam Link device has a good network connection.” Those are imprecise terms, of course, but Steam’s in-home streaming has previously

shown a pretty good ability to scale visual quality up and down

based on network conditions.

Valve’s announcement comes just days before Google is expected to

announce its own streaming gaming service and hardware

at next week’s Game Developers Conference. But that service will likely mirror other subscription services like

GeForce Now

or

PlayStation Now

, which stream a selection of games running on powerful centralized servers. Steam Link Anywhere is more akin to

Nvidia’s GameStream service

, which essentially lets your home gaming rig serve as the server to stream games you already own.

Just last week, Sony released new PS4 firmware allowing users to stream PS4 games to their iOS devices, expanding a capability that was already available on Android and the PlayStation Vita.

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

March 14, 2019 at 02:46PM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/13/microsoft-wireless-display-app-xbox-one-pc-game-streaming/

Microsoft announced today that it has updated its Wireless Display app to add support for the Xbox One. The latest version of the app will allow gamers to stream PC titles from Steam and elsewhere directly to Microsoft’s gaming console. The app also offers Xbox controller support so you’ll be able to play the game with familiar controls.

In order to use the Wireless Display app, you’ll need to install the program on your PC and Xbox. Once installed, you’ll have the option to cast your computer, be it a game or anything else on your desktop, to your Xbox One. There are a number of different latency settings, including one specifically for gaming that should tone down any potential input lag issues.

It’s worth noting that the app doesn’t support keyboard and mouse input, so you won’t be able to stream to your Xbox while using standard PC controls. Last year, Microsoft introduced keyboard and mouse support for the Xbox One, so it’s entirely possible that may be an option while streaming content in the future.

Prior to adding Xbox One support, the Wireless Display app (previously called "Connect on Windows" was available to cast content between a PC and the Microsoft Surface Hub, making it a relatively niche service prior to the recent update. Xbox One support adds a significant amount of new functionality and instantly makes the app one of the most viable ways to play PC games on your Xbox.

Via: The Verge

Source: Microsoft

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 13, 2019 at 05:45PM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/14/samsung-full-screen-phone-camera-hidden-display/

Samsung is working on a "perfect full-screen" phone that will be 100 percent display, with no notches, bezels or cut-outs. According to Yang Byung-duk, the company’s display R&D vice president, "Technology can move to the point where the camera hole will be invisible, while not affecting the camera’s function in any way."

The Galaxy S10 was the company’s first phone to include a "hole-punch" cut-out in the display, but Yang says that eventually, the selfie camera will be placed underneath the display itself. While the company hasn’t revealed any timescales for such a device, Yang did say that it "wouldn’t be possible" within the next one to two years.

The company has jumped quickly from notches, to hole-punch, to folding phones, so a total display device is certainly in keeping with Samsung’s bold aspirations. Unfortunately, it’s rarely the first company to get their ambitious ideas to market. However, this isn’t the first time Samsung has discussed this kind of technology — it was mentioned in a presentation given in October last year — so even if we don’t see a full-screen device within the next two years, Samsung has already got the ball rolling.

Via: The Verge

Source: Yonhap News Agency

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 14, 2019 at 08:39AM