Dlodlo V1 is a VR headset that doesn’t look like a headset at all

Finally! A virtual reality headset that won’t take over your whole head nor kill your neck after five minutes of use.

Chinese VR startup Dlodlo plans to offer a $559 headset this October called the V1 headset. It looks like a thick pair of goggles rather than a massive headset. It’s definitely got a slimmer profile than the Rift or Vive. It weighs 88g, whereas the Vive is over 500g, and it has a 1200 x 1200-pixel screen for each eye (105-degree field of view), making it more high-res than both than the Rift and Vive.

The V1 doesn’t have any built-in processing power, so it must connect to a PC or an iPhone-like device called the D1, meaning the whole setup can squeeze into a small bag and be used while on the go. It can supposedly deliver a decent experience with minimal juddering and a crisp screen. Demos include one where you can shoot from a pirate ship and 360-degree shots of tourist spots.

The D1 will be sold separately from the headset (the price is an unknown for now), and it runs software called Dlodlo OS, which is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop. It will also feature its own app store that’ll include 139 3D movies and 76 “independent sports, action adventure, and shooting games”. To interact with the game, you’ll need a standard game controller. There’s no integrated gamepad like Google’s Daydream remote.

Keep in mind this is first-generation stuff. The games and film catalogue should improve over time, and Dlodlo suggested you’ll be able to connect the V1 to iOS or Android devices at some point down the road to presumably run more apps.

Dlodlo

This ring lets you feel your loved one’s heartbeat in real time

If you buy your partner TheTouch’s HB ring, you’ll always know if he or she is alive and well – no matter where they are.

The HB ring works like this: as long as you’re wearing the ring, and your partner is wearing one too, you’ll both be able to feel and see each other’s heartbeat in real time through the rings themselves, which can be made of sapphire or rose gold, thanks to a built-in heart-rate sensor.

Most wearables come with a heart-rate sensor, but these rings are unique because they not only detect your pulse but also instantly broadcast it with lights and vibrations to another paired ring anywhere in the world. They work with a companion iOS and Android app and sync via Bluetooth. 

The whole idea is that you’ll always feel connected to your loved one. It’s kind of creepy, but also romantic, if you’re into this sort of thing (and can afford it). These rings cost $599 a pair at the low end, but the more expensive rose gold versions retail at $2,990 for two. Ouch.

“HB Ring is simply great for people who are deeply in love,” TheTouch’s website explained, while also noting that the rings can also come in handy when it comes to tracking loved ones. “[It] can be also a very useful tool for people in dangerous professions such as the military, police and etc., whose lives are daily in danger, allowing their close ones to worry less, without disturbing them.

Let’s just hope your loved one’s battery never dies, because then you’ll have a mini heart-attack too. The rings are currently available for preorder and should start shipping in 2017.

Cassini spacecraft finds flooded canyons on Saturn’s moon Titan 

It’s official: Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has canyons that are flooded with liquid. Well, liquid hydrocarbons, anyway: Scientists analyzed images from a flyby of the Ligeia Mare sea of methane that the spacecraft did in 2013 and found channels branching out from it. Some of these were narrow and deep but it wasn’t until further examination that they confirmed the steep troughs were carved out by liquid.

In previous flybys, NASA scientists used Cassini’s radar as an imager to peer through the thick haze covering the surface of Titan. But in 2013, they used it as an altimeter to measure the depth of geological features around Ligeia Mare. The spacecraft’s signals reflected off the canyon floors in unique ways, glinting like the bottom of the moon’s methane seas, indicating a surface smoothed by liquid. Scientists counted the seconds it took radar pings (demonstrated in the GIF below) to get back to the spacecraft and estimated the channels’ depths to range from 790 to 1,870 feet below sea level.

Such deep cuts in the surface imply either a long-running process or that the canyon geography was worn down much more quickly than others on Titan. In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters studying the image analysis, researchers gave Earthly comparisons to the competing theories about what cut the Saturn moon’s channels. In an uplift powering erosion, rising terrain altitude sent water punching deeply down, creating the Grand Canyon. Variations in the water level, like those creating Lake Powell, increase the river’s rate of erosion.

Though Cassini is currently making its last pass around Titan before it concludes its 20-year journey in Saturn’s atmosphere in September 2017, researchers will likely apply this imagery-and-depth radar combination to analyze other channels leading out of the Ligeia Mare sea.

Source: NASA

Sex toy sends intimate data to its creator

Connected sex toys that track your habits can be helpful, but at least one of them is a little too willing to transmit your personal data. Presenters at Def Con have revealed that at least one toy, the We-Vibe 4 Plus, regularly shares sensitive info with its creators at Standard Innovations Corporation. The couple-oriented vibrator sends its temperature to the manufacturer every minute, and reports whenever you change the vibration level. While it’s not calling you out by name, it wouldn’t take much to piece together details you probably don’t want to share beyond your partner, such as when you climax and what it takes to get there.

As our columnist Violet Blue learned at Def Con, it’s not helped by SIC’s vague policies on how it handles your data. The policy you get in the necessary app covers information from the website, and there aren’t any notices to tell you where that data is going and why.

SIC tells Fusion that it collects the vibration information for “market research” to determine which settings are the most effective, and temperature for “hardware diagnostic purposes.” It’s probably not selling your sex life to the highest bidder, and the company adds that it’s “in the process of reviewing” its data collection policy to improve transparency. Until then, though, it’s hard to know whether or not that data stays entirely within the company, and whether that data is sufficiently anonymized and protected. Whatever is the case, this is a reminder to think carefully about sex toys — if you’re not comfortable with the idea of someone else knowing about your behavior, you might want to stick to offline pleasure gear.

Via: Fusion

Source: DEF CON

Apple’s World Trade Center Store Opens August 16

Apple has announced that its World Trade Center retail store in Lower Manhattan opens on Monday, August 16 at 12:00 p.m. local time. The store will be located in the new Oculus transit and retail hub on the lower level.

Apple’s plans to open a retail store at the new World Trade Center have been rumored since 2013, and construction has been underway since earlier this year. It will be the 10th Apple Store in New York City.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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How TSMC Won Back Exclusivity With Apple for the A10 Chip in iPhone 7

Last year, MacRumors covered the potential reasoning for Apple’s rumored return to having a single partner for Apple A-series chip production with the A10 after having both Samsung and TSMC produce versions of the Apple A9.

Since then, TSMC confirmed in conference call comments that its chip packaging changes have led to improvements of 20 percent in both speed and packaging thickness and 10 percent in thermal performance. This has a number of implications for future device performance and future foundry partner selection for Apple.

First, it is helpful to understand why InFO-WLP (Integrated Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packing) is such an important development for Apple’s mobile processors. Typically, chips as large as CPUs or mobile SoCs have been attached via “flip-chip” methods which attach an array of inputs and outputs to a package substrate via solder bumps, ultimately enabling it to be attached to a printed circuit board (PCB) for device integration.

From the start, this is a compromise, as it would be preferable to attach a silicon die directly to the PCB to minimize height and reduce the lengths of interconnects between components. A number of technical limits in areas such as interconnect pitch, board produceability, and damage due to board warpage typically prevent this direct attachment.

The above problem had previously been circumvented for smaller I/O count components with a similar concept called Fan-In Wafer-Level Packing, where smaller die are allowed to route their inputs and outputs in an area roughly the same area as the die. TSMC is just one of many companies beginning to enable this concept for larger I/O count devices in such a way that allows high volume, acceptable yields, and an acceptable cost.

Slide from 2014 TSMC presentation on InFO-WLP advancements
With this method, the traditional substrate becomes unnecessary, as a silicon wafer serves that purpose with one or more logic dies included. The reduced height of this method means that all interconnects are shorter, which directly enables lower power and better thermal performance. The transistors driving the outputs on this device now drive less metal length, meaning they can save power. Saving power also means performing better thermally, but a more direct connection to the PCB means there is simply less thermal resistance to the PCB, which can pull heat away from the device.

The promised performance improvements are certainly significant. A 20 percent improvement in performance is roughly equivalent to the improvement expected between successive foundry nodes (e.g. the change from 14 nm to 10 nm). With both TSMC and Samsung only offering refined versions of their 16 nm and 14 nm FinFET processes, this means that total performance gains could be in line with the same improvement seen from the A8 to the A9 chip, but driven by packaging improvements rather than a new process.

Of course, every generation can’t enjoy this same improvement, but increased power efficiency is critical for mobile devices to be allowed to hit higher peak limits for short durations. In the keynote for the iPhone 6 family of devices, Apple went into detail about how it made a significant effort to ensure the A8 processor did not throttle itself as the A7 had. This was and is an industry-wide problem as mobile SoC makers have raced to provide the highest performing chips. By taking advantage of new packaging from TSMC, Apple gets more relief in this metric, and freedom to go to a higher power dissipation mode for short periods.

Bare iPhone 7 logic board with space for A10 chip
A long-term advantage of this technology is to enable much faster main memory interfaces to the logic die, largely by widening the interface. Current mobile SoC packages use PoP (package-on-package) techniques which connect the memory dies to the main processor with tiny wires, which is thermally inefficient and not ideal for performance. By using wafer-level packaging, these drawbacks can be reduced for the main memory, while also increasing the number of connections and data that can be moved in a given time.

In the long run, this move will likely be a cost-saver for Apple as it removes the package substrate. However, the co-design of device die and device package explains why multiple partners are not technically feasible for an effort such as this. Companies like TSMC have also labored for years to make this a reality, with the benefits long being understood.

At this point, there is no denying Apple’s technical acumen and bandwidth in chip design. The company has developed multiple chips for market in extremely aggressive timeframes with fully custom designs that rival those of Intel for performance per watt. Apple beat its competitors to market for a 64-bit ARM design by over a year, and designed two custom A9 dies in the time that its competitors designed one.

Given Apple’s focus on pushing the performance of its silicon, and TSMC’s packaging advancements, it makes sense that TSMC has been able to gain sole possession of Apple’s chip orders for at least this generation. Looking forward, the InFO-WLP packaging technique marks a significant development not only for TSMC and Apple, but the semiconductor industry as a whole.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: TSMC, A10 chip
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Don’t miss this awesome deal on Tronsmart’s Wireless Fast Charger

Right now Tronsmart is offering its fast-charging wireless charger with a sweet discount in the U.S., UK and Canada. Depending where you are ordering the charger from, you can save up to $6 on the recently-announced charger. It has a built-in LED that will let you know things are working, and that your phone is charging once you place it on there. It can work as both a standard charger and a fast charger, meaning you can top off that Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy S7 or other phone nice and quick.

As mentioned above, this deal is good for those in the U.S., UK and Canada.

• In the U.S. – $19 with coupon FASTCHAR
• In the UK – £14.36 with coupon PK4ZHV6O
• In Canada – $20 with coupon XEXBMHXT

You will need to be sure to use the correct link and coupon code to order it for your region. The deal is set to end on August 18, or when supplies run out. If you are interested, be sure to act quickly to get your order placed.