Sony PS VR Aim Controller Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
I’ve always loved light gun games. Arcade classics like Time Crisis, Police 911 and Silent Scope — with its realistic sniper rifle — were my favs. Now, an ugly grey plastic tube is poised to blow them all away.
The new PlayStation VR Aim Controller looks more like a balloon animal than a weapon of war. But as soon as I placed the PlayStation VR headset on my head, it morphed into a futuristic assault rifle so easy to aim, it almost felt like it could read my mind.
The PlayStation VR Aim Controller.
Sean Hollister/CNET
In Farpoint, the initial PlayStation VR shooting game that will arrive alongside the Aim controller (at some point in the future for an undisclosed price), I traversed a desolate, dusty alien landscape shooting space spiders. They lept through the air like Half-Life’s infamous headcrabs in an attempt to eat my brains, or shot huge globes of noxious acid to melt my flesh and bones. But with the Aim, I could pick them off with precision before they even hit the ground.
Mind you, I’ve played some fantastic shooting games on the HTC Vive and with the upcoming Oculus Touch controllers, too. This was different. Nothing I’ve played for the Rift or Vive’s two separate controllers (instead of a single two-handed gun) has felt quite this intuitive.
Physically, the Aim is pretty much what you’d expect from a modern PlayStation controller. If you look for them, you’ll find pretty much all the same controls as the standard DualShock 4: two analog sticks, four face buttons, two bumpers, two triggers, a directional pad, Share and Options buttons and even a button mapped to the DualShock’s touchpad button (though no actual touchpad on top.
Sean Hollister/CNET
Of course, those triggers are in rather different places to take the form of a gun. And in a nod to lefties, the peripheral is totally ambidextrous, with a R1 button mounted on either side of the trigger, under your index finger, to help you reload. “We didn’t want you to have to reach for anything,” says Seth Luisi, who helped prototype the controller for his game Farpoint.
Isn’t the Aim the same as Sony’s Sharpshooter, which turned a PlayStation Move and Motion Controller into a two-handed gun back in 2010? Not at all. Though they look similar, the Aim is far more accurate and with far less of a delay before your motions are reflected in the game world. In fact, it works in tandem with the PlayStation VR headset to bring your wrists and arms into VR, too — with the extra sensor data, it seems pretty good at estimating where they are.
The PlayStation Move Sharpshooter, from 2010.
Sony
The PlayStation VR Aim Controller is effectively a replacement for the Sharpshooter, by the way. Farpoint won’t support the Sharpshooter at all. You’ll need an Aim (or a standard PS4 gamepad) to play the game once it eventually comes out.
Now here’s hoping Konami likes the controller enough to start working on a new Silent Scope.
Take a stunning 4K flight in VR thanks to this drone’s 360-degree cameras
Shooting video in 360-degrees to create virtual reality footage is becoming readily available on many cameras, but very few that fly. The Exo360 drone not only flies but also films for VR at 4K quality.
The Exo360, currently at crowd funding stage, uses five cameras to capture 4K video or 60-megapixel stills. Once the drone has landed again that footage can be rendered for use with VR headsets like Samsung’s Gear VR or Oculus Rift.
The drone is able to stay in the air recording for 18 minutes and go up to a 3km range using a dedicated controller, claim its creators Queen B Robotics. With 256GB of onboard storage there should be plenty of memory. The Exo360 is not much heavier than a DJI Phantom 4, at 1.8kg, so it should be easy to transport.
It also works using a smartphone app meaning smart flight functions like following a subject, circling a point of interest, returning home, swopping in for dramatic shots and moving smoothly for dolly style shots. You can even set multiple waypoints so the drone follows a specific path.
Controlling the drone from the ground can be done from any of five view options which can be viewed on VR goggles or on the phone via an HDMI phone to controller cable.
The full 4K Exo360 is currently on Indiegogo having broken its goal. Early bidders can snap up a 4K model for $1399 or a 1080p/30fps version for $1099. The Exo360 will begin shipping this December.
READ: Sony PlayStation VR headset release date revealed with 50 launch games
iPhone 7 home button ditched in latest full frontal photo leak
The Apple iPhone 7 has had quite a few leaks but not a lot of photos showing the front of the handset, until now. The latest shot shockingly shows the home button has been dumped completely.
The leaked photo was sent to MobiPicker by one of its sources. According to the leakster this photo shows a touch sensitive ‘pad’ instead of a physical button.
The claimed reason for ditching the button is that it can go wrong and be expensive to replace. We’re taking that with a pinch of salt. However a touch sensitive home button would make sense as it could allow for more ease of interaction. Plus rumours of the home button being ditched have already been floating about.
The source says you’ll be able to press and hold for Siri, double tap for running apps and, of course, hold to unlock using TouchID. This, the source claims, “might be significantly smoother and faster due to this change”.
The photo also shows that the top and bottom bezels are slimmer plus the front camera and proximity sensor have been moved.
While we have heard previous rumours of the iPhone 7 ditching the home button we’re still not taking this as fact. We’ll have to wait until the expected September unveil to find out everything.
Mobipicker
READ: Apple iPhone 7: What’s the story so far?
Sky Movies becomes Sky Cinema, kicks off with Spectre
Sky has rebranded its Sky Movies service to be called Sky Cinema.
The new name, which will come into effect on the 8 July, will kick off with the UK premiere of James Bond’s latest outing: Spectre.
“We have a brand new name! Introducing Sky Cinema, bringing movie moments closer to you from July 8th,” said the company on Twitter announcing the news.
Sky
As part of the relaunch Sky says there will be a brand new movie every day rather than just a handful each weekend and that there will be regular “pop-up” channels like it already offers with collections like Harry Potter or Bond.
The broadcaster has also said that it has improved the HD picture quality, made the sound better, and introducing new features to make it quicker and easier to find films.
HD channels will be added to current subscriptions at no extra cost.
Earlier this year Sky launched Sky Q, a new set top box with a completely overhauled user interface and something it dubs “fluid viewing” allowing you to start watching something on one TV in your house and then carry on where you left off on another.
At the time of the launch, Sky announced it would be launching a 4K service later in the year, but that has yet to be detailed. It hasn’t detailed any 4K Ultra HD plans at the Sky Cinema event either apart from saying that it is “still coming”.
The company has confirmed the name change will also change on Now TV, as well as its services in Italy and Germany.
Developing…
Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 with 2K screen throws in free VR headset to show off its affordable power
Vodafone has taken the wraps off its latest flagship smartphone that’s built to offer high-end specs while remaining affordable. Those specs are so good they can even do VR justice, so Voda is throwing in its Smart VR headset for free.
The Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 is just £300 offline. We say that first – and use the word just – as you need to realise what you’re getting for the price.
The handset is made from aircraft grade aluminium and features a rear fingerprint sensor. On the front is a 5.5-inch 2K AMOLED display encased in 2.5D glass. Powering the device is an octa-core processor backed by 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage plus microSD expansion to 128GB.
In the rear of the phone is a 16-megapixel camera with “super zoom”, phase-detection autofocus and “zero second shutter lag”. The front has an 8-megapixel selfie snapper which also comes with its own flash.
The Smart Platinum 7 comes with 4G+ connectivity and is powered by a 3000mAh battery for two days life, claims Voda. It also features Quick Charge 3.0 for rapid top-ups on battery.
So that’s £9 less than a OnePlus 3 but comes with a better screen and free VR headset.
The Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 is available now for £300 on pay as you go or £28 per month on contract with unlimited minutes, texts and 1GB of data plus 500MB roaming data per month. Both price options include a free Vodafone Smart VR headset.
READ: Vodafone Smart Ultra 6: The ultimate budget smartphone
Kanye West adds ‘Saint Pablo’ track to his living album
Whether you love, hate or have been pushed to piracy by either the artist or his unconventional release strategy, Kanye West will continue meddling with his The Life of Pablo album. After announcing the Saint Pablo tour early in the day, the album disappeared from its listing on Tidal before reappearing with an extra song. The 20th track on the ever changing album is also titled Saint Pablo and features Sampha. It’s live on Tidal and iTunes/Apple Music so far, although we haven’t heard about any other changes to the album. Saint Pablo isn’t an entirely new piece however, as the track leaked online around the same time TLOP stopped being a Tidal-exclusive. Of course, while the lack of exclusivity could be a downer, West is still pushing Tidal with the new tour, promising its members will have early pre-sale access to tickets tomorrow on the 16th.
Kanye has added “Saint Pablo” to #TheLifeOfPablo via @TIDALHiFi https://t.co/DzL49cDV53
— TeamKanyeDaily (@TeamKanyeDaily) June 15, 2016
Source: Tidal, iTunes
New app lets anyone spot and help migrant boats in distress
If you’ve ever wished you could do more to help migrants, but don’t have the wherewithal to join a humanitarian group, a new app could do the trick. The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS)’s I Sea iOS app lets you scour satellite images to spot refugee boats in trouble and alert rescue teams to their location.
The idea is so simple it’s a wonder no one has thought of it before. The app takes satellite images of search and rescue team routes, divides them into millions of small plots and assigns them to users to monitor. The app doesn’t make clear how long you have to monitor your assigned patch, though.
Once you spot what you think might be a boat, you can flag it and tag with a description. Figuring out if a vessel on your plot is a migrant boat in trouble is a bit challenging, though. I thought I was looking at a picture of the night sky when I tried the app, and wasn’t sure if any of the specks in the image were worth flagging.
I tried tagging a shadowy blob as “nothing,” and I Sea asked for my name, passport number and email before letting me submit my report. That’s a pretty good deterrent for would-be pranksters, but the form can also be filled out with dummy info.
After posting my report, I was returned to the same plot of the Mediterranean sea I had been assigned, with no indication of when I would get a new region. The app sends your report to “relevant authorities” for processing, before sending a rescue team out to your tagged location.
It’s wise that I Sea is reviewing the reports before sending its teams out on wild goose chases, but that vetting alone could become more of a hindrance than help. However, compared to the dozens of donation apps available, I Sea appears to be helpful in a much more immediate way. For those with time and good intentions, this might be a helpful way to spend some downtime.
Via: Mashable
Source: I Sea
OnePlus X series is no more, says CEO
While it’s common practice for smartphone makers to offer two or three product lines to cover all the bases, OnePlus has recently decided to go from two to one. At the OnePlus 3 launch event in Shenzhen today, CEO Pete Lau confirmed that his company’s more affordable offering, the OnePlus X, will not have a followup model. That’s not to say it was a bad phone (even we liked it) nor was it unpopular, but Lau reasoned that OnePlus will instead focus on just one “true flagship” line from now on, in order to strengthen its foundation — something that Lau admitted his team neglected last year — rather than fighting the low-end price war.
Part of this long term plan includes merging OnePlus’ development resources for the global Oxygen OS (near native Android) and the China-only Hydrogen OS (skinned Android), and we’re told to expect an announcement on that end later this year. Lau added that he’ll continue to invest in after-sale services and offer more lifestyle products — like the new series of bags unveiled at the show — to further promote his brand. Judging by last night’s Loop VR virtual launch event plus the new fancy promotional videos, it appears that OnePlus has been spending more money on marketing as well, though Lau said he’ll still be avoiding the conventional advertising channels in order to pass the savings onto his customers. And yes, OnePlus is still going to make a profit off its competitively priced phone, because “we still gotta make money at the end of the day; it’s just a matter of how you do it and how much you want to make.”
Without giving away sales figures, Lau pointed out that his company is doing very well across Europe, India and the US. He expects Europe to remain OnePlus’ fastest-growing market, while the company continues to be the top brand in the $300+ category in India — as reflected by Amazon India’s bestseller chart, according to the exec. Unlike its local competitors, though, OnePlus will remain cautious in China and focus its resources on its online channels, and it won’t be opening any new physical stores there. “This will all make sense in 20 years’ time,” Lau added. “Some vendors say the online model is stalling so they badmouth it, but I see that as an opportunity. You just have to remain persistent.”
Unlike previous launches, the OnePlus 3 has ditched the much loathed invite system and can be ordered immediately (mass production had already started last month), so it shouldn’t be long before we see whether the company’s new strategy will pay off. “We hope that once our fans have played with the OnePlus 3, they will feel the same way they did with the OnePlus One,” Lau said.
Machine-vision algorithms help craft realistic portraits from sketches
Sketching a person’s face is difficult even for the most talented of artists. But even though it’s an austere task for humans, it’s not entirely perfect for computers just yet, either. That’s where machine-vision algorithms come in.
Computers have been capable of taking hand-drawn sketches and turning them into photorealistic images for some time now, but the color photographs that result haven’t always been accurate. Obviously it’s even more of a frustrating exercise for humans to tackle, let alone take even a cursory stab at.
That’s where a neural network educated by Yagmur Gucluturk, Umut Guclu and others at Radboud University in Denmark comes in. The process began with 200,000 images of faces pulled from the internet and converted them into drawings, grayscale and color sketches to teach a neural network with 11-layers to turn a sketch into a photograph of a face that could rival one actually taken by a camera.
This went so far as to train the neural network, and then the team gave it one more go using a completely different set of data. It was direct to start with a sketch and create a photorealistic image. The resulting images were surprisingly accurate, with the team making note that the line sketches produced images with color even when there wasn’t any color to be found within them.
The neural network was tested again with an additional data set using an alternate set of sketches, and again the network produced admirable results. Some anomalies produced by the experiment were such that the network had difficulty with realistic results when there wasn’t shading with regular pencil drawings.
Despite its shortcomings when it came to some particular data sets, the network was able to recreate some impressive images of artists like Van Gogh and Rembrandt using self-portraits sketched by the greats themselves.
These results were achieved in only a few years of work, paving the way once more for the startlingly impressive neural networks we’re able to teach and train to perform complex tasks. What’s next for these machines? The sky could be the limit.
Via: MIT Technology Review
Source: arXiv
Three’s mobile ad-blocking trial starts today
Three is trialling network-level ad-blocking in the UK today. The experiment, which is sure to put advertisers and publishers on edge, will affect a small number of Three customers that were approached beforehand. It’s been described as a “technology test” for Shine, an ad-blocking specialist which Three has recruited to explore the idea.
Three has stressed that “not all participants will experience the full Shine service” over the 24 hour period. That means it could come on intermittently, or only affect certain sites. “You might still see some ads on some websites, or notice some formatting errors,” Three explains to trial participants. “Don’t worry — this is something we’re aware of, and we’re working to fix it.” The technology only works on Three’s own network too, so testers won’t see the benefit while they’re connected over Wi-Fi.
The method by which Shine blocks ads at the network level is unclear. The company says it uses “machines” that are capable of performing deep packet inspection (DPI) inside the network. Using a mixture of “real-time analysis, artificial intelligence and algorithms,” the team is able to identify ads and stop them without breaking the original webpage or app.
Once the trial is over, Three will be picking a selection of customers and asking them for feedback. Responses will be gathered over the phone, however “it may take up to three months” for the company to call.
Ad blocking is a divisive subject. There are clear benefits for the customer — better privacy and a cleaner, faster experience on the web — but it also threatens the business model of countless internet companies. “The current ad model is broken,” Tom Malleschitz, Three’s chief marketing officer said in May. “It frustrates customers, eats up their data allowance and can jeopardise their privacy. Something needs to change.”
While ad blocking is on the rise, it’s still a niche practice — mostly because people have to go out of their way to install an app or browser extension. If it was enabled by default on Three, or offered during the setup of every phone it sells, that could change the numbers dramatically. Three is stepping cautiously — EE and O2, even more so — but if it decides to go all-in with mobile ad blocking, it could have huge implications.
Source: Three
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