Deal: Aukey 10000mAh Power Bank for $10, 3000mAh Power Bank for $6 from Amazon
Portable battery packs aren’t necessarily an accessory everyone needs, but they can offer peace of mind when you’re out and about with no wall outlet in sight. Right now there are a few quality power banks being offered on Amazon for steep discounts, so let’s take a look at what deals are available.
First up is the Aukey 10,000mAh Power Bank, which features two USB ports and a battery large enough to charge your smartphone multiple times without running out of battery. This charger is normally offered for $19.99, but right now you can drop the price down to just $9.99 when you use the coupon code J7ZS6IY9 at checkout. Not only is that a massive 50% off, this charger has consistently held a 4.5/5 star rating on Amazon, which means this is likely a quality product.
You can also pick up Aukey’s 3,000mAh Portable Lipstick Charger at a discount. This power bank is significantly smaller than the first option listed above, but might still be enough to charge your smartphone up to 100% without running out of battery. This charger is normally offered for $9.99, but you can drop the price down to just $5.99 when you use coupon code 8T6PPE4R at checkout.
We’re not sure how long these deals will last, so if you’re interested, head to one of the links below to pick one up for yourself.
A light-hearted game of mass murder in ‘Party Hard’
In January, someone moved into the house right next to Alex Nichiporchik’s. Nichiporchik, CEO of SpeedRunners studio TinyBuild Games, immediately wasn’t a fan of his new neighbor. “He decided it’s a funny idea to throw parties every night until 3AM,” Nichiporchik recalls. One month into this late-night party hell, TinyBuild signed a contract with Pinokl Games, a studio known for crafting family-friendly experiences. But Pinokl’s new project was wildly different: Party Hard, a stealth game about skulking through a bumpin’ party and murdering everyone there.
“Coincidence? The final level is actually modeled against what I imagine the next door party is,” Nichiporchik says.Slideshow-314895
For the record, Nichiporchik isn’t a murderer. He is a producer on Party Hard, a game that entered his life at a serendipitous moment and has helped him work through some frustrating emotions. Party Hard began life in a game jam, a rapid-fire game-making contest where developers generally build playable experiences in 24 to 72 hours. Party Hard‘s prototype attracted a fair bit of buzz.
“To be honest we didn’t expect it to get the attention it did when we built the initial prototype,” Nichiporchik says. “The premise of Party Hard sounds very serious, but has been designed as a very light-hearted game. Everything from the visuals, to the sound effects, to what actually happens in the game was designed to be as silly as possible.”
Party Hard isn’t meant to be a soulless murder spree — it has mystery and a narrative, though Pinokl and TinyBuild have purposefully kept that quiet. They want players to be surprised by something other than the amount of stabbing required in the game. And there definitely is a lot of stabbing. On that front, the studios have received a fair bit of criticism from people who read the game’s tagline, “A tactical game of mass murder,” and assume the worst.
“We had two camps of people: those who just read the premise and start to go off about the game being awful, and those who saw GIFs of dancing bears and realized the game is all about being silly,” Nichiporchik says. “What we didn’t reveal to anyone yet is the story part of Party Hard, which tells like a detective story of John West, the inspector in charge of Party Hard killings — the story is told through his eyes. We’re very interested what people think about it in contrast with the silly gameplay.”
Plus, Party Hard gets even deeper as a live-streamed experience. It features special Twitch integration features that allow viewers to trigger certain rare, in-game events by voting on them in chat. These include an influx of killer bears, SWAT vehicles, firefighters, rioters or new items to buy.
“Twitch integration was one of those things that we thought we’d try out, and make it a tiny feature in the game,” Nichiporchik says. “Then we play-tested it and it was fun to play with just 10 people watching. Constantly having the odds flipped on the player is incredibly entertaining. So we decided to go full-on with the integration and designed a dozen different scenarios that fit in the game. Because of this nobody on the team had proper sleep for about a week.”
TinyBuild and Pinokl will see if their sleepless nights have paid off with Party Hard‘s launch today on Steam for PC ($10 in a release deal). However the sales shake out, Nichiporchik has learned at least one lesson while working on Party Hard.
“Apparently if you call the cops for 10 nights in a row on someone, the landlords get notified.”
Tags: hdpostcross, indie, murder, pinokl, tinybuild, twitch
New flu vaccine protects test animals from multiple strains
Every now and then, it happens. You take the time to get a flu shot, but you wind up sick anyway. Bummer. That’s the problem with the flu, it’s not just one virus — it’s multiple variant strains. Every year, researchers have to choose one common strain on which to base the season’s new vaccine. One day, that kind of guesswork could be a thing of the past: according to a new studies in Nature Medicine and Science, researchers are making significant progress on vaccines that fight multiple flu strains simultaneously.
The idea behind these new vaccines has been floating around for awhile, but scientists haven’t had much success with it in the past. Instead of targeting the elements of the virus that mutate from year to year, the new formula is based stable elements common to several strains. This new formulation method has successfully created an immunity to H5N1 (a particularly deadly strain) in rodents and provoked notable immune responses in monkeys infected with H1N1.
Researchers are a long way from developing a viable universal flu vaccine for human use, but these successful animal tests serve as a compelling proof of concept. With time, development and more research studies it’s possible. One day, you may have your last flu shot ever — something we’re all looking forward to.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Via:
The Verge
Source:
Science, Nature Medicine
Tags: flu, fluvaccine, fluvaccines, h1n1, h5n1, science, vaccines, virus
Uber’s self-driving car efforts get help from the University of Arizona
Uber’s ambitions in the self-driving car space took a step forward today — the company just announced a partnership with the University of Arizona that will see the university become the home of Uber’s mapping test vehicles. According to a press release from Arizona governor Doug Ducey, the partnership will focus on research and development for optics systems focused on mapping and safety for self-driving vehicles. Uber is also donating $25,000 to the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences, and an internal email obtained by The Verge indicates that the donation will be for scholarships.
This partnership comes after Uber officially partnered with Carnegie Mellon University earlier this year; since then, Uber’s self-driving cars have been spotted driving around Pittsburgh. There’s also been accusations of Uber poaching many of the university’s researchers, something the University of Arizona might want to keep an eye out for. Either way, this partnership is just another sign that Uber sees its future as one where drivers aren’t behind the wheels of its cars.
[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Source:
State of Arizona, The Verge
Tags: selfdrivingcars, uber, universityofarizona, uofa
Acer Chromebook 11 C740 Review
Chromebooks can be impressive laptops. We’ve seen some excellent options come from Samsung, ASUS, and even Acer. Some might be on the pricey side, but Acer recently introduced the Acer Chromebook 11 C740, a Chromebook for those who want a small form factor and are on a budget.
In my time with the C740, it’s been an impressive machine, even at its low price point.
Design
Acer’s Chromebook 11 C740 features a compact design, making it easy to carry this 11.6-inch laptop just about anywhere.
The design is thin and very compact, making it easy for travel. It’s nicely designed, with an elegant metallic look.
The only real downside is that the hinges aren’t weighted, so you will have to open the Chromebook with two hands. However, that’s a luxury, and doesn’t impact the overall elegancy or usability of the Chromebook.
The most impressive part of the design of this Chromebook is the focus on durability. Acer says the device can withstand 60kg of force and the corners won’t normally get damaged up to a 45cm drop. It’s a really hefty looking Chromebook without weighing too much, and with a focus on portability, that’s a good feature to have.
Hardware
The C740 sports an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 HD Acer ComfyView display with anti-glare properties built in. While it’s said to be an HD display, you’re just not going to get much detail out of it due to the low resolution.
It’s not too bothersome, but it’s disappointing when you consider even sub $300 tablets often have a much more detailed display in tow.
If you’re coming down from a much larger display, whether that be 15-inch or a 30-inch, it’s going to take some getting used to.
Coming from a 21-inch display, it was very uncomfortable at first, but you do adjust to it. It’s still very disappointing that Acer chose to go with such a low-res display for this model, as a good media experience is what’s really missing from making this the perfect portable Chromebook.
On the left side, this Chromebook features its power insert, HDMI cable, a USB 3.0 port, and an audio jack.
On the right is an SD card slot and a USB 2.0 port. It was disappointing to see Acer not opt for all USB 3.0, but it’s not likely that you’ll be transferring large file sizes from your Chromebook, so users may not see the file transfer speed differences.
Up top, right above the screen, is a webcam for video conferences via Hangouts and other mediums.
Performance
The Acer Chromebook 11 C740 sports a Intel Celeron 3205U dual-core 1.5GHz processor paired with 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM. To help keep things running smooth, a 16GB solid-state drive is packed in this machine as well.
Overall, it’s a very nice package–everything ran like it should have, if not better. Applications opened much quicker than some of my previous machines, switching between applications was as easy as it could be, no lag or delays whatsoever, and it was generally a smooth experience.
Battery
The Acer C740 has a 3-cell LiPolymer battery, said to last up to 9hrs of straight usage. In my time with the machine, it did last around that amount of time, even in playing video and music.
However, most people aren’t going to sit down for 9-hour chunks of time with the Chromebook. In normal scenarios, it could last you up to a couple days of battery life, especially if you’re only using it here or there for checking up on your favorite websites, the occasional YouTube video, and so on.
Obviously everyone who uses the device will have different experiences, but for the most part, it most certainly won’t let you down when you need it most.
Software
As you would assume, Acer’s Chromebook 11 C740 is running the latest version of Google’s ChromeOS, which works excellently. It does require Internet to use, however, there are offline options for writing and editing documents with Google Docs and so on.
What you might find surprising is just how fast ChromeOS runs, even on a smaller and low spec’d Chromebook. I came across no issues, and during my time using ChromeOS, I found that my productivity was up just because of how fast it was switching in-between applications, documents, spreadsheets, and more.
It’s a shame that ChromeOS isn’t more popular. It’s plagued by misconception that the Chromebook has to have Internet to work, whereas it doesn’t. Most of its basic functionality is all offline.
There’s also the misconception that one could never replace their laptop with a Chromebook because of its limited abilities with software and offline work. But let’s face it. The average user will use their laptop for browsing the web, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and that’s about it.
With a low price point, Acer’s Chromebook 11 C740 just makes sense as a replacement for the traditional laptop or even desktop.
Closing
The Acer Chromebook 11 C740 comes in at $279.99, although some online retailers are selling it for as little as $199.99. You can find it through marketplaces like eBay for cheaper, albeit that might not be your best option if you’re concerned with things like warranties and the unrelilablilty of eBay sellers.
Overall the C740 is an impressive and compact Chromebook from Acer, but it might not be the Chromebook you’re looking for. It’s by no means a bad device, but there are certainly better options out there for not much more than Acer’s advertised price.
On the other hand, if you need something that’s quick and extremely portable, the Chromebook 11 C740 is your best choice.
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