A look at how ‘Jurassic Park’ and its CGI dinosaurs changed cinema
Here’s a fun piece of trivia: Steven Spielberg was originally going to use stop-motion animation for the dinosaur sequences in Jurassic Park. That’s right, one of the most iconic films in the world, a landmark in the evolution of CGI almost ended up looking like Jason and the Argonauts. Thankfully, when the director approached Industrial Light and Magic about adding motion blur to his model raptors, the special effects house managed to convince him that completely computer-generated dinosaurs were the way to go. And the rest, as they say is history. After the break is a nice short film from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences that tells the tale from start to finish, and even gives you sneak peeks at the stop-motion test footage and the first batch of CGI proofs of concept.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
New plug-in allows Outlook users to join Google Hangouts
Google has released a new plug-in for users of Google Apps that allows them to use Google Hangouts for video conference calls from within Microsoft Outlook.
Users of the email client can now initiate or join a Hangout directly from Outlook if they have a Google Apps account.
Simply download the Hangouts plug-in for Outlook on your Windows machine and you’ll then see a new icon in both Outlook Mail and Calendar that will allow you to participate in Hangouts.
Head on over to this link to download the plug-in now.
The post New plug-in allows Outlook users to join Google Hangouts appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Last minute gift ideas for dads and grads
Question….You love your dad, right? That’s cool, we love him, too. He’s a pretty stand-up dude and he’s always got our back. Ok, another question… what did you get him for Father’s Day?
With only a few days between now and Father’s Day you’d better scramble to find that guy something nice. Not to worry, though, we’ve got your back and wanna help out. That’s why we’ve put together a nice list of products, accessories, services, and other stuff to help show how much you love him. We won’t tell him that you slacked off if you won’t.
Not only does this list speak to dear old dad but it also works well for anyone looking to scoop up a graduation gift. Yes, it’s that time of year when you may find yourself heading to barbecues and get-togethers in the name of celebration.
Whether the grad is fresh out of high school or just wrapping up college, there’s plenty here to help congratulate them.
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Available Immediately!
For those who cannot be bothered to leave the house, we present some of our favorite virtual currencies, gift cards, and services to check out.
- Amazon Coins – Choose from 500, 1,000, 2,500, 50,000, or 100,000 coins which can be used for purchasing games and apps through the Amazon Appstore. While it’s normally a 1 coin=1 penny trade-off, you save money when buying in bulk.
- Amazon Gift Card – Name your denomination and have it delivered via email. Perfect for those last, last minute buyers who have a very specific budget in mind. Alternately, you can print out at home and make it look like you put some effort into it.
- Google Play Gift Card – Okay, you’ll have to put in a smidge effort here and get to a store. But, doing so lets your gift-getter access paid apps, games, magazines, books, movies, and other content. C’mon, get off the couch. $10, $45, $50, and $100
- MoviePass – All the movies you can see in one month for one low rate? Works at many movie theater chains and can be used literally once per day. We won’t say anything if you bought this one for yourself.
- Starbucks Gift Card – Dude, really? Who doesn’t love coffee? For a limited time, Amazon is tossing in $10 in Appstore credits with the purchase of select gift cards. $25 and $50
Nest Learning Thermostat
Dead simple to install and manageable via your smartphone, this smart thermostat is the future of heating and cooling. And, because it learns the users behaviors and patterns, it promises to save money over the course of its life. Activity sensors detect when nobody’s home and turn itself to an energy-saving temperature; remembers what tempss keep you comfortable and creates a custom schedule. $249 at Amazon and Google Play
Sphero 2.0
You know that cute, little, white, robotic ball that you control with your phone? This is him. Actually, this is the new him. There’s a lot more going on with this guy; he’s way more than just a remote control orb. Download and play a number of fun games (Rolling Dead is one of our faves) with the Sphero 2.0, drive your pet nuts, or take it to the pool. Yep, he’s waterproof and looks pretty darn cool floating around at night. Customize the colors, make him dance, and teach him tricks. Toss on the Nubby accessory and he’s ready for more rugged terrain! $99.95 at Amazon
SONOS
The first name in wireless music entertainment, SONOS is one of those products that gets better over time. Thanks to the recent integration of Google Play Music, you’ve got just about every music source under the sun available to stream. For a limited time you can pick up a $50 Amazon Promo Credit and score 6 months of Google Play Music All Access at no extra cost. The Play:3 works well in just about all environments and fills any room with deep, rich sound. $299 at Amazon
Blumoo
Enhance an existing home theater and entertainment system with this all-in-one solution. Not only does this provide universal remote control options to more than 200,000 devices, it’s also capable of Bluetooth streaming. That’s right, all of your music files from iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and Google Music can be piped through to a television and entertainment center. Toss out all of your other remotes, this one has it under control. To be fair, it’s your smartphone that acts as the remote. Channel guides, reminders, and other features specific to you local provider ensure you get the best experience. $129 at Amazon
Pebble
Compatible with Android and iOS devices, this watch gets better all the time (see what we did there?). View notifications from a variety of apps and services, control music playback, and customize it with handpicked faces. With a battery that lasts up to a full week on a single charge, the Pebble is solid as a rock. There’s an entire community built around watchbands, apps, games, and other fun stuff. $199 at Amazon
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The post Last minute gift ideas for dads and grads appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Engadget HD Podcast 401 – 6.11.14
Has it been two weeks since we last saw you? Yep, but audio-file-munching software systems couldn’t keep us away this week, so get ready. There are piles of console related tidbits on top of E3 this week, with Sony launching its PlayStation TV device in the US and Microsoft’s Xbox One getting dis-Kinect-ed from it’s once-bundled sensor peripheral. Verizon and Netflix are at it again, playing the streaming slowdown blame game and Apple wants to improve audio quality by letting its proprietary Lightning port step in for headphone duty. There’s also a ton of shows to see this week, but Ben’s been too busy checking out the technology at Disney World to make a dent in his DVR queue. All this and much more is ready for your ears, so head to the streaming links below to join us for another episode of the Engadget HD Podcast!
Hosts: Richard Lawler, Ben Drawbaugh
Producer: Jon Turi
Hear the podcast:
15:12 – Vita TV becomes PlayStation TV in the US, Europe and Canada for $99 this fall
17:10 – Sony’s new PlayStation Network TV show ‘Powers’ hits in December, free on PS Plus
18:58 – Sony’s next update for Playroom will bring custom AR broadcast sets
22:22 – YouTube headed to PlayStation 4 ‘later this year,’ adds one-click sharing
31:11 – Xbox One getting Twitter, Vine, and HBO Go by year’s end
39:55 – Xbox One June update arrives so you can drop the nickname and add storage
41:23 – Xbox at E3 2014: an interview with the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer
45:51 – Microsoft now selling Kinectless Xbox One for $400
52:48 – Microsoft lets Xbox One devs turn off Kinect for a power boost
54:40 – Verizon slaps Netflix with cease and desist letter over error message
59:21 – Netflix will stop ‘test’ blaming streaming slowdowns on ISPs, for now
54:40 – Format Wars: Blu-ray vs. HD DVD
59:21 – Google Play Movies & TV gets offline viewing on Chromebooks, info cards in Chrome browsers
54:40 – Aereo finally brings live television to your $35 Chromecast
59:21 – Apple’s new Lightning spec allows for smarter, better-sounding headphones
54:40 – BBC to test 4K broadcasts of World Cup matches, but you can’t watch them
59:21 – ‘Orange Is The New Black’ season two is ready for streaming on Netflix
59:21 – What’s on your HDTV this week: ‘Game of Thrones’ season finale
Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS – AAC] Enhanced feed, subscribe to this with iTunes.
[RSS – MP3] Add the Engadget HD Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator.
Contact the podcast:
Oculus VR explains why mobile virtual reality won’t poison the well
With all the talk of high-fidelity virtual reality coming from Oculus VR — the virtual reality headset company that’s now part of Facebook — it’s easy to believe that the only type of VR is PC-based. But that isn’t the case! Beyond what we learned recently about Samsung and Oculus working on a VR peripheral that uses your phone, Oculus has been open about working on a mobile software development kit for some time now. Heck, we even spoke with Oculus CTO John Carmack about it last year. “I think you’ll see the mobile SDK launch publicly before the consumer Rift comes out,” Oculus VP of Product Nate Mitchell told us this week at E3 2014. Beyond Samsung, a handful of developers are “experimenting with some high-end Android devices … building experiences and seeing what’s possible.”
But here’s the issue: Great VR requires serious horsepower. While the current range of flagship Android mobile devices are pretty powerful, they don’t hold a candle to even low-end gaming PCs. In so many words, isn’t Oculus worried that a subpar, Android-based VR experience could poison the well for the full Oculus Rift coming down the line? If your first experience with VR is a bad one, you may never try it again. “That’s a completely fair statement,” Mitchell said.
At the same time, he also said, “The fidelity that you can experience on mobile is pretty killer.” So, which is it? It’s sort of both.
“That’s a big reason why we’ve been holding it back,” Mitchell told us. “We’re really focusing on polishing it [the SDK] to get to the quality level it needs to be before we release it more broadly. And a lot of the key developers — it is in the hands of some key game developers who are working with it now — are making great progress.” He wouldn’t say exactly which mobile devices that devs are working with, but he did say it’s running on current “flagship” hardware (think: the Galaxy S4 — which is exactly what we heard is the phone powering Samsung’s headset).
As far as when we’ll hear more about Oculus VR products you can actually use at some point in 2014, Mitchell and co. say they’re holding back for “the latter half of the year.” When we speculated aloud that maybe such announcements were being held for an Oculus-run conference, Mitchell laughed and said, “Who can say?” The best he’d give us was this:
“As we move into the second half of this year and into 2015, there’s a lot of good stuff planned. It’s hard to say what consumers should expect because we’re still defining that ourselves, but with [Jason] Rubin on the content front, [Jason] Holtman on the platform front and then more excitement on the hardware side with some things we haven’t quite announced yet, plus the first-party content stuff. It’s gonna be an exciting… whatever! Future!”
Lasers could be the future of drunk-driving detection
Forget the “walk-and-turn” field sobriety test; researchers have developed a laser that can detect drunk drivers remotely. A team at Warsaw’s Military University of Technology shined a laser beam through a moving vehicle, along with a reflective mirror that bounced back to a detector, to pick up alcohol vapors. With a system to simulate a drunk driver’s breath, the researchers were able to detect blood alcohol concentrations higher than 0.1 percent. (In the US, a concentration of 0.08 or greater is considered illegal.) With a real drunk person, though, the lasers-and-mirrors setup could likely detect even lower levels.
The system isn’t perfect; both driving with the windows open and driving with the AC on were able to throw off the alcohol vapor-detection system. In these cases, the system would alert police officers and indicate that the cars should be pulled over and checked. The next step will be making the system more compact, as well as investigating other scenarios that can affect its accuracy. If law enforcement adopt this setup, though, we could see fewer cars pulled over — and, most importantly, increased efficacy in catching those who are driving under the influence.
Filed under: Transportation
Via: The Verge, Popular Science
Source: SPIE Digital Library
AIVAnet 