Sony is open to bringing PlayStation VR to PCs

PlayStation VR is one of the more affordable advanced virtual reality headsets hitting stores, but it has a big catch: you need to own a PS4 (and a PlayStation Camera) to use it. What if you’d just like to try it with your computer instead? You may well get that chance. According to a translation of a Nikkei interview with Sony’s Masayasu Ito, the company is “considering plans” to let you use PlayStation VR with a PC. After all, he says, the PS4 and PCs share similar parts (namely, similar processor and graphics architectures) — it wouldn’t be a big stretch to support both.

This isn’t to say you should be cancelling your pre-order for that HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. To no one’s surprise, Sony is focused on building games to make sure PlayStation VR succeeds on its home turf. There will be an “expansion into various fields,” Ito says, but anything besides the PS4 is playing second fiddle right now. Still, the very possibility of PSVR on PCs is intriguing. It could introduce some much-needed competition into a field that’s only just getting started.

Via: Reddit, Polygon

Source: Nikkei (translated)

Facebook preps in-store purchases for Messenger

Facebook already lets you send money to friends through its Messenger app, but it appears the social network has much loftier ambitions for financial transactions. The Information reports that Menlo Park is preparing to offer its chat app as another way to pay for things thanks to a feature for in-store purchases. Based on code for the iOS app, Facebook is working on a way for you to use Messenger to pay for goods in person. As The Information notes, this would put Zuckerberg & Co. in the mobile payments fray that includes Apple Pay, Android Pay and several others.

The application’s code hints at more upcoming features, too. There’s a reference to “secret conversations” tool, but unfortunately there’s little explanation. Sure, it could mean encrypted chats like WhatsApp and other apps offer, but it could also be a way to hide threads within Messenger. Details are scarce on that one for now, so we’ll have to wait and see if more info creeps out or for a formal announcement.

Facebook seemingly wants Messenger to play a bigger role in how you go about your day as well. The Information also viewed source code that discusses syncing calendars, sharing quotes from articles and beaming News Feed-style status updates to only a select few friends. In terms of your calendar, the code references being able to add events and “organize your day.”

Since the app’s code is the source for all of this info, we could be waiting a while before Facebook makes anything official. However, it’s certainly interesting that the company has some big plans in the works for Messenger, including a way to handle payments that’s more than just sending money to a friend. That money-sending feature was tipped in source code several months before it arrived as well, so perhaps we’ll get some official word soon enough. We’ve reached out to the social network on the matter and will update this post when/if we hear back.

Via: The Next Web

Source: The Information

Electric rollerblades go offroad with tank treads

Polish inventor Jack Skopinski recently debuted his latest electric people-mover: a set of battery-powered “off-road” rollerblades that handle dirt trails as well as they do city streets. Each boot is outfitted with a 350 W DC motor that propels the rider for up to 12 miles at speeds topping 9 MPH. Rather than proper wheels, these rollerblades sit atop rubber treads enabling riders to scoot across grass, gravel and dirt tracks with ease, if the promotional video (below) is any indication. The entire system is controlled by a wired, hand-held remote.

The boots are pretty pricey for a last mile commute solution given their $1,400 price tag. Plus, at 11 pounds for the pair, these blades are going to be a pain to haul around should you deplete their charge before reaching your destination. That said, Skopinski is reportedly planning to adapt this tech to traditional, 2 x 8 rollerblades in the near future.

Via: Gizmag

Source: EV4

Sonos product head Marc Whitten has left the company

Sonos announced a round of layoffs earlier this month, and now a turbulent March continues. The company has confirmed that chief product officer Marc Whitten has departed the company after a two-year stint. During his time at Sonos, Whitten oversaw two of the company’s most important product launches in its history: the excellent new Play:5 speaker and the speaker-tuning TruePlay software. A company spokesperson gave us the following statement: “Marc Whitten has decided to leave Sonos, and his last day was Friday, March 25. We thank Marc for this hard work and meaningful contributions over the past two years.”

While both of those products had successful launches, it sounds like Sonos is getting ready to do a pivot of sorts. In his blog post confirming the layoffs, Sonos CEO specifically cited the Amazon Echo as new competition for the company in the connected speaker space and said that Sonos was looking into how to bring “voice-enabled music experiences into the home.” He acknowledged that was new territory for the company and implied that the layoffs could be due to that transition. While there’s no word on why Whitten left, it’s entirely possible that the change is related to this new area of focus for Sonos.

Prior to his time at Sonos, Whitten was the chief product officer for Xbox and oversaw the (somewhat troubled) launch of the Xbox One. Since he left, Phil Spencer took over and guided Microsoft through some tough times and refocused the console on its core gaming experiences. Whether Whitten ends up back in the games industry, the tech industry in general or something entirely new remains to be seen. Whitten hasn’t posted on his Twitter account since March 15th, and his LinkedIn and Twitter profiles still say he’s working for Sonos.

Via: Tech Insider

Instagram says it’s not changing your feed… yet

The internet flung into a panic today as users prepped for Instagram to change how images display in its feed. Earlier this month, the filter-driven photo app announced that it would switch from a chronological order of photos to an algorithm-based approach like Facebook does with the News Feed and Twitter’s option for organizing Timelines. The idea is to push things the software thinks you’d like to see more to the top, but, of course, this means you’re likely to miss out on some things, too. Based on the high level of panic and the service being inundated with posts begging followers to turn on notifications, Instagram took to Twitter to assure us that nothing is changing yet.

When the timeline tweak was first announced, Instagram said the feature would roll out in the “coming months.” However, a select few were privy to the new algorithm’s handiwork on their timelines as its still in testing. And of course, that meant mass panic. Today, after the rage set in, the company reiterated that it would make a formal announcement when the change takes effect for all users.

We’re listening and we assure you nothing is changing with your feed right now. We promise to let you know when changes roll out broadly.

— Instagram (@instagram) March 28, 2016

Source: Instagram (Twitter)

Drawing drone mimics your sketches

Ever wondered what a drone would draw if it had an artistic side? MIT is happy to show you. It recently developed a Flying Pantograph drone that, as the name suggests, translates whatever you draw on a table to its own drawings on a vertical canvas. It’s not a faithful mirror of your art, as the drone bobs and weaves while it tries to catch up with your vision. However, the researchers say the shaky result is on purpose — think of it as the robot adding its own flair to a collaborative work.

Right now, the Flying Pantograph exists largely as a cool “what if” exploration of the interactions between humans and machines. However, the implications for practical uses are big, in more ways than one. For a start, it could open the door to more forms of art from people who can’t stand. It’d also let artists draw on surfaces that are either too distant or too large to cover, like the sides of buildings. If so, you could see far more personal art dotting the urban landscape in the future.

Via: Popular Science

Source: MIT Fluid Interfaces (Vimeo)

Cooking app maker wants a standard for smart kitchen devices

There are plenty of smart cooking devices to help you bring masterpieces to the table. However, they don’t usually talk to each other — your sous vide tool doesn’t know the weight of the ingredients you measured on a scale just a couple of feet away. SideChef wants to fix that. The cooking app developer is building a platform that lets kitchen gadgets work in unison. Once you pick a recipe, every device would know what to do. Your oven would start pre-heating, for instance, while your mixer would run at just the right speed to blend everything together.

This isn’t just wide-eyed optimism on SideChef’s part, as it’s talking to “several hardware brands” about making this a reality. Just how well it’ll work is up in the air, though — it’ll depend on getting the right partners (such as big appliance companies), building sufficiently open code and otherwise avoiding the pitfalls that come with trying to create standards.

Xbox One grabs 360 games ‘Halo Wars’ and ‘Soul Calibur 2 HD’

The Xbox One is beefing up its library via backwards compatibility, allowing players to boot up some of their favorite games from the Xbox 360. This week, Xbox One users get Halo Wars, Soul Calibur 2 HD Online and The King of Fighters ’98: Ultimate Match. It’s a fighting game fiasco with a side of real-time alien-shooting strategy.

Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game from Microsoft and Ensemble Studios, and it first hit the Xbox 360 in 2009. The game was largely well-received, though development was rocky and it ended up being Ensemble Studios’ final title. Ensemble founder Tony Goodman said in 2012 that the game wasn’t originally Halo-themed, but Microsoft thought it would perform better if it carried a recognizable name. Plus, Bungie, the studio that created Halo, was never into the idea of Halo Wars, Goodman said.

Current Halo developer 343 Industries and Alien: Isolation studio Creative Assembly are working on Halo Wars 2 for Xbox One and Windows 10. Last we heard, that one was due in fall 2016.

That’s enough about Halo.

Soul Calibur 2 is an immensely popular fighting game that debuted on consoles in 2003, and an HD version landed on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. That’s the version hitting Xbox One’s backwards compatibility lineup today: Soul Calibur 2 HD Online. The King of Fighters ’98: Ultimate Match is a remake of the original 1998 KOF ’98 game; it came out in North America in 2009.

Source: @majornelson

Oculus takes you into the colorful alien world of ‘Farlands’

High-end virtual reality is here, by way of the long-awaited consumer Oculus Rift. But to get the most out of that headset, you’re going to need entertaining VR experiences. Thankfully, Oculus has you covered. Along with the launch-day game lineup it revealed a couple weeks ago, at GDC 2016, the company’s now unexpectedly introduced Farlands. This virtual reality adventure, built with Unreal Engine 4 and designed specifically for the Rift, lets you visit and explore a planet filled with exotic life.

Once there, players are dared to explore the alien world’s landscapes, as well as discover new forms of life, including bugs, fish and plants, which you can then develop relationships with. According to Oculus, every day you play will bring a fresh opportunity to find strange creatures and, along the way, wander around previously unknown habitats. If you have your Rift already, you can download Farlands for free starting today.

Source: Oculus

New Horizons spots signs of a former lake on Pluto

The New Horizons probe isn’t just revealing details of Pluto’s highest heights… it’s also uncovering some of the dwarf planet’s hidden history. NASA has published an image form the spacecraft showing evidence of a former frozen lake. The remnants are relatively small (20 miles across at their widest), but the surrounding channels hint that the lake held liquid nitrogen at some point in the distant past. While we’ll need more data to draw any firm conclusions, this suggests that Pluto was considerably livelier “millions or billions” of years ago — it wasn’t the wasteland it appears to be today.

Via: Phys.org

Source: NASA