Windows 10 is about to get a high-performance Game Mode

Microsoft made a big fuss out of the Windows 10 Creators Update’s gaming features, and it’s nearly ready to start delivering on them… including some that have remained mysterious. The company has revealed that it’ll start trotting out a largely unknown Windows 10 Game Mode as part of Insider previews “this week.” The improvement won’t be fully functional until later releases, but Microsoft has at last shed some light on what it is: it’ll fine-tune your PC to speed up gaming performance. This mode should help both legacy Windows games (Win32) and modern titles (UWP), so you won’t have to be picky about what you’re playing to notice a difference. You should “soon” hear a lot more about how it works, Microsoft says.

The news comes as Microsoft has detailed some of the already known upgrades hitting both the Xbox One and Windows 10 in the months ahead. Baked-in Beam livestreaming will be the centerpiece on both platforms, giving you a simple way to share whatever you’re playing. On the Xbox One, you’ll also see an enhanced, always-available Guide with faster access to game recording and music controls, an Achievement tracking overlay, a new look for Cortana and a Gamerscore leaderboard.

Both platforms will receive Xbox Live upgrades that help you connect to friends on social networks, a more social-friendly Activity Feed, better tools for Clubs and looking-for-group posts, and the option to start your own Arena tournaments in games like Killer Instinct and World of Tanks. So long as you’re willing to be patient (you won’t get much of this until at least the Creators Update), you’ll have a lot to look forward to.

Via: Mike Ybarra (Twitter)

Source: Xbox Wire

Six futuristic off-road vehicles

By Cat DiStasio

“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” When Doc Brown said it, he was driving a flying time machine, of course. But not all vehicles need to become airborne to travel off the grid. This capability is especially important in rural areas where roads have never existed, or in disaster recovery situations where pathways are no longer passable due to earthquakes or flooding. No matter the reason, a slew of innovations are tackling off-road transportation like never before. Some futuristic all-terrain vehicles are built to drive over just about anything, while others have been engineered to carry their own road surface and pick it back up as they truck along. Whether the situation calls for traveling over impassable obstacles or creating a road for other vehicles, there’s a tough machine out there to tackle the job.

Road-carrying truck

B-Y-O-Road? Welsh company Faun Trackway dreamed up (and built) a truck that can travel where there are no roads — because it carries its own. Mounted on the back of an otherwise pretty standard-looking truck, a roll of thin aluminum extrusions can be unfurled to create a 50-meter roadway. The resulting temporary surface is capable of supporting vehicles weighing up to 70 metric tons, so the road-laying truck is a great companion for delivery and rescue vehicles carrying heavy supplies into otherwise hard-to-reach areas. Once the convoy has traversed the aluminum roadway, Faun Trackway’s creation rolls the road back up and hustles along to its next challenging destination.

Electric “spider” car

The Swincar is a bizarre but useful car that can drive just about anywhere. Each of the vehicle’s independently driven wheels is attached to a spider-like leg for extra ground clearance, and powered by its own electric motor. This setup translates to a lot of power and control, so uneven terrain barely even slows the Swincar down, let alone stops it in its tracks. Because it’s an all-electric vehicle with no emissions, the Swincar one-ups traditional ATVs in the sustainability department as well.

Tunnel zipper truck

This truck can not only drive where there is no road, but it can build a 14-mile tunnel out of Lego-like bricks in just 24 hours. The zipper truck is equipped with rollers held in place by a tapered metal core, and the wider front of the truck allows the tailored lock-blocks to be placed just so, creating a perfect archway. Much like the historic arch’s Roman predecessors, the arched tunnels zipped together by this truck need no mortar or adhesive to stay together. Even better, the blocks can be removed once the tunnel is no longer needed and then be reused many times over.

Slope-worthy VW party bus

While some off-road vehicles are designed with serious functions in mind, others are just looking for a good party. This modified 1966 VW Bus Bulli T1 was created with slope-side jams in mind, and its wheels were replaced with rubber snowmobile tracks. The hip party van can travel across the snow at a good clip — around 30 miles per hour — and comes equipped with a 1,000-watt subwoofer and two 300-watt speakers (as well as two turntables and a microphone). Just add snow and your own DJ.

Automatic brick road machine

Designed to make charming brick roads even easier to lay down, this Dutch machine does the work of a crew of human laborers in a fraction of the time. Dubbed Tiger-Stone, the automatic paver-laying machine can lay up to 400 square meters of gorgeous brick road in a day. Adjustable to widths up to six meters, the machine is fed by human workers who stack bricks into an angled hopper in the desired pattern. The machine then leverages gravity to lower the bricks onto the pre-leveled ground where a sand layer has been prepared. Tiger-Stone eliminates the back-breaking aspects of bricklayers’ jobs, while cutting both time and cost and — best of all — leaves behind a beautiful brick road where there was none before.

All-terrain adaptive tricycle

This hybrid tricycle helps adventurers with disabilities go places they’ve never been able to go before. Created by designer Jesse Lee, the Horizon can traverse a wide variety of surfaces that wheelchairs and other adaptive vehicles struggle with, such as gravel, hills, grass and dirt. It’s powered by electricity and pedal power (controlled either by hand or foot), which can be combined in one of three different “driving modes,” depending on how much power is needed. The Horizon can go up to 25 miles per hour, and its 48-volt lithium-ion battery offers a 30-mile range on a full charge.

NVIDIA shows us all the right way to update a product line

When “old” models get all the features from the new everyone wins.

We expected a new Shield TV was in the works. The current model is one of the best Android products available and NVIDIA keeps it that way by constantly providing content and fine tuning the features and software. You can tell they care about the Shield name, and specifically a Shield set-top box. We didn’t expect to see Google Assistant or the NVIDIA Spot that extends it to more rooms, though. And we never would have assumed that it all was going to work with the Shield TV we have now.

The reason they can do this is because the new Shield TV has the same hardware as the old Shield TV. And don’t let that worry you. There’s nothing “better” available yet and if anything, Android is the slowest part of the picture. The X1 scales to do a lot more than Android asks of it, and the GPU is the same architecture that millions of desktop gaming PCs are using to play AAA titles on high-resolution monitors. There simply isn’t any better hardware available for an ARM machine designed to play videos and games.

What has changed, and what we’ll need to buy to make our old Shield TVs do all the tricks the new Shield TVs can do, are the remote and gamepad. The gamepad looks just all around better and buying one is a no brainer. Goodbye, capacitive silly mess and hello real buttons that you can feel when you’re playing a game. I am going to Borderlands the hell out of you. Besides, this is how you get to have Google Assistant when it’s finished — through the mic in the gamepad. I’m not sure if I’m changing to the new remote just yet. Giving up the headphone jack for an IR blaster isn’t something I want to do.

The old Shield TV with the new software might be the best Shield TV.

I’ll come right out and say what a lot of people might be thinking — the “old” Shield TV with the new software is the best Shield TV. The new box has some changes I like — it’s smaller, and the capacitive button on the top is gone. There are also some changes I don’t like — the IR receiver is gone so my Harmony remote setup wouldn’t work the way it does today where I can click a button (or yell at Google Home) and turn on the TV, set the AV box, fire up the Shield and set the lights to switch to dim blue mode. The SD card slot is gone because there isn’t room for it, and with two USB ports that you can connect a hard drive or thumb drive to it was a little redundant. Still, some people will miss it and I have actually used it to look at pictures on my camera’s SD card. Finally, nerds need to know that the Micro USB port is gone, and you’ll need an adapter (or cable) to talk to your new Shield TV from your computer through one of the USB A ports. None of these are real issues, but unless you really need something smaller, there’s no reason to buy a new Shield TV. But yeah, buy a new controller or two.

Overall, this is a big win for us and something you don’t see very often on the Android side of things. Your “old” existing stuff still works really good. When new stuff comes along, there are usually a few things that you can’t do without buying it. I’ll take the money I would have spent to buy a new Shield TV and buy NVIDIA Spots instead. Thanks, NVIDIA.

Jets and mannequin heads: Just another day at Dyson’s campus

Ever since my teenage years, I’ve been fascinated by the story of how a clogged-up Hoover led Sir James Dyson on a five-year journey in which he built 5,127 prototypes and almost went bankrupt before finally coming up with the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner. The inventor’s namesake company would go on to create a wide range of vacuums, bladeless fans, hand dryers, laundry machines and, most recently, a hair dryer. Perhaps to the surprise of some, these were all conceived in the quiet English countryside where Dyson is based.

As of this writing Dyson employs around 7,000 people worldwide, 3,000 of whom are based on the UK campus in the ancient town of Malmesbury, whereas Singapore’s R&D campus and Malaysia’s testing facility each house about 1,300 workers. But it’s the 14-acre UK campus where Dyson’s New Product Innovation team gets to throw around wild ideas.

On average, it takes between three and five years for a new machine to evolve from mere sketches in the engineers’ hardback notebooks into actual products. Obviously, the more ambitious projects will require even more patience. The Dyson 360 Eye vacuum robot, for instance, took 16 years. Dyson even tried to make its own Google Glass-like AR headset 12 years ago, but it was eventually canned after three years of development.

Dyson spends a little more than $6 million per week on research and development alone — enough resources, presumably, for the engineers to focus on what they do best. To facilitate their work, the sites are equipped with high-end machining robots and 3D printers for rapid prototyping, special rigs for all sorts of exhaustive stress tests (dropping, twisting, slapping, bumping and more), labs dedicated to environmental-control testing and chambers for testing noise output and electromagnetic compatibility. In fact, electromagnetic compatibility has become more critical as Dyson delves into the world of connected appliances, the latest being its Pure Hot+Cool Link air-purifying heater.

Occasionally, Dyson has to set up specialized labs in order to dip its toes into new product categories. In the case of the Supersonic hair dryer, Dyson had to repurpose some labs just for testing 600 versions of prototypes using 1,600 kilometers (yes, kilometers) of real human hair, valued at $56,000. During the four years it took to develop the Supersonic, the engineers went from simple rigs that slowly moved strands of hair back and forth to human dummies that continuously combed their hands through their hair. After a certain number of cycles, the hair sample would then be examined for potential damage under a microscope or dangled in special boxes to observe any changes in shininess. Real human testers were eventually used too, of course.

To cater to the ever-growing Research, Development and Design (RDD) team, Dyson recently opened a building on its UK campus where 450 lucky engineers can take advantage of its new labs and test chambers. Alas, the building, dubbed “D9,” was out of bounds for me and even some of the staffers who accompanied me the day of my visit. In fact, this building is so secretive that it uses mirrored walls to blend into the surrounding greenery, only to be occasionally outed by the reflection of people or animals passing by.

I did get rare access to other parts of the campus, under the condition that I keep my camera in my pocket. As we walked into the RDD building, I was instantly overwhelmed by the vast, bright space inside the first workshop, even though it was only two stories high. The main corridor was lined with display boards, each of which held one model of a Dyson vacuum stripped down to the component level, so that the engineers could easily pick up parts for a quick reference. My host was also keen to point out the subtle remains of a production line, which was relocated to Malaysia in 2003.

Dyson has a thing for engineering-related relics, so much so that the UK campus has a collection of what Sir James considers to be design and engineering icons. The most stunning piece is perhaps the Lightning jet fighter hanging on the ceiling of the campus’ Lightning Cafe. Sir James’ other jet, a Harrier, sits near a Bell 47 helicopter and a Rotork Sea Truck — a high-speed landing craft that he helped design when he was 23 — in the car park. Walk toward reception and you’ll find an original Mini Cooper that’s been cut in half — a sixtieth birthday present to Sir James from his engineers.

On the other side of the RDD building, I was amused by the sight of a large, retro-looking engine parked on a dolly in the middle of the room. Turns out it was a Rolls-Royce Welland, which was Britain’s first production turbojet engine made for the Gloster Meteor jet fighter in the Second World War. This particular 74-year-old unit is the world’s last remaining working original.

“What do you guys do with it?” I asked.

“Sometimes we just fire it up on the lawn on a sunny afternoon,” Global Product Development Director Paul Dawson said. Much to the delight of Dyson engineers on-site back in April 2015, Sir James invited Ian Whittle, son of the engine’s inventor, Sir Frank Whittle, to stand around the roaring Welland in the campus car park. If all goes well, the campus will soon see the addition of a relatively more modern Concorde engine to keep the Welland company.

Dyson’s obsession with high-performance engines should come as no surprise. Much like what the engine is to an aircraft, the motor is the heart of all Dyson machines. In order to get the best cyclonic separation performance, the company went from using clunky conventional motors to making its own nimble digital motors, and these spin two to three times faster than the ones inside bag-type vacuums.

“That opened up massive opportunities,” Global Head of Motors & Power Systems Matthew Childe said. “It opened up doors on size, on power density, on weight and actually got us to a place where the competition now is trying to catch up.”

Thirteen years after Dyson’s first digital motor, the one used in the DC12 compact vacuum, the latest development from Childe’s Motors Lab is the V9 — the company’s smallest-ever digital motor made exclusively for its Supersonic hairdryer. The precision requirements for its 13-blade aluminum impeller are so high that the device can only be machined by military-grade tools at Dyson’s Singapore base in order to achieve the high flow rate and quieter acoustic performance while staying in one piece at 110,000 RPM.

Some of the earlier digital motors continue to power other types of Dyson products. The V8, for instance, is inside the latest Dyson cordless vacuums with a power rating of 425W — more than double that of the V2 inside the DC31 handheld vacuum from 2009. The much larger V4, on the other hand, is still used for delivering high air pressure in Dyson’s hand driers.

Dyson obviously isn’t finished with motor development anytime soon, but we can also look forward to its other key interest: solid-state batteries. Back in Oct. 2015, the company announced its $90 million acquisition of Sakti3 for its high-density solid state battery technology, which could lead to some interesting breakthroughs in Dyson’s handheld devices, robots and even its rumored electric car. Whatever it is that Dyson wants to build in the future, though, chances are it will never run short of engineers — as long as it continues to operate in a bucolic setting with weird props aplenty, anyway.

M&D’s wireless MW50 headphones aren’t perfect, but they sound great

Master & Dynamic has dabbled in wireless sound before, but big cans like the MW60s aren’t always the most convenient to lug around. People’s needs change when it’s time to pack up our gear and venture out into the world, and that’s why the company recently released a new set of wireless headphones: the on-ear MW50s. At $449, they’re currently the least expensive wireless option in Master & Dynamic’s lineup, but that’s still pretty dear for a pair of wireless headphones. That said, their blend of performance and style might be worth it for some of you.

As always, it seems the company’s choice of materials is largely what drove the price up. Master & Dynamic typically pays as much attention to how its headphones look as to how they sound, and that’s still true: It’s all high-end leather and stainless-steel hinges here. None of that would matter if they didn’t fit well, and the MW50s fortunately sat on my head just fine. More important, the removable lambskin ear cups remained pleasant after hours of use, even though they sit directly on the ear. (What can I say? On-ears have never been my thing.)

Anyway, the priciest pieces can be seen only if you pop off the magnetically attached ear pads: Wedged inside those metal housings is a set of drivers made of beryllium. This metal has historically been tricky to work with, not to mention expensive, but it has been used to great effect in beloved speaker setups like Yamaha’s old-school NS-1000 monitors. That might seem like overkill for headphones you’re meant to toss in a bag, but I’m certainly not complaining.

I spent part of my time testing the MW50s at CES, a veritable hellscape of crowd noise and over-eager pitchmen. Whether I was sitting in our trailer cranking out stories or trying to shoot videos on the show floor, the MW50s consistently impressed me with their crispness and clarity. M&D’s work has always been characterized by a noticeable warmth of sound, and that’s true here as well. Still, the MW50s’ warmth didn’t impress me as much as their balanced sound.

With the MW50s, the M&D team seemed to be chasing highs, mids and lows that feel punchy without outshining each other. Listening to Hey Violet’s “Brand New Moves” is a great example: Most of the song is dominated by an atmospheric bass riff, but Rina Lovelis’ vocals and the electric guitar that come in halfway through the track never feel overshadowed. Ditto for Ronny Jordan’s “The Jackal,” which, in addition to being a great bit of West Wing trivia, has one of my favorite bass lines in jazz. Still, not once does the lively saxophone get lost in that sea of bass and drums. The flip side to that evenhanded approach is that fans of thumpy bass could probably do better elsewhere. Even so, these things sound lovely.

And let’s not forget they can be used sans wires too. The pairing process is exactly what you’d expect: Hold a switch until a light flashes, and connect from the phone. It’s not quite as seamless as pairing a set of AirPods, but it’s as straightforward as headphones without Apple’s W1 chip are going to get. To M&D’s credit, I didn’t notice a dip in quality when ditching the included fabric-wrapped aux cable, and the range is pretty astonishing as well. Most Bluetooth devices I use start to cut out after I move 30 to 35 feet away from them, but the MW50s continued to play my Spotify playlists as I wandered to the other end of our New York office.

Unfortunately, all is not perfect on the wireless front. It would have been nice if the headphones detected when the aux cable was connected and killed the Bluetooth connection; that way, there’d be no gap between plugging the MW50s into a computer and hearing the music play through them. As it stands, I had to remember every time to turn the headphones off before plugging them into my MacBook. Minor, but still irksome.

Call quality was generally more troublesome. About half of the people I called using the MW50s said the sound of my voice floated in and out during our conversations. The headphones were on and I hadn’t been moving in each of those cases, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that. I also wish the battery life lasted as long as M&D claims; it says they’re rated for 16 hours of continuous use, but my headphones died at around the 13-hour mark every time. At least it uses a future-proof USB Type-C cable to charge.

All that said, some people would probably be best off skipping these entirely. Take frequent travelers: The lambskin leather on the ear cups can only do so much to block out the roar of plane engines and other ambient sound. The headphones are comfortable, certainly, but if you’re planning to rack up some major airline mileage this year, you might want to consider a pair of headphones that fit over your ears rather than on them, not to mention ones with active noise cancellation.

If you’re looking for a phenomenal bit of road-warrior gear, or a perfect frequent travel companion, the MW50s fall short. But if you’re mostly interested in hearing great music wirelessly and don’t otherwise need many frills, your search should start here.

ExpressVPN Router Review: Fixing the root of the problem

As someone who occasionally uses a VPN to change my location, I do find it a bit annoying when I have several devices that need to be connected. I have to set it up on each individual device, and that’s not to mention the fact that the VPN connection sometimes drops and I’m unaware of it.

This is why I was intrigued when I heard about a router that connected itself to the VPN service. Because the router directs traffic to my devices, it’s basically a “blanket” solution that results in just the router being connected, while all your connected devices are automatically routed through the VPN.

It’s actually quite a simple yet clever way to ensure that all of your devices remain connected to a VPN without worrying about connecting them individually. It’s also a very convenient solution considering the fact that some devices, like Apple TV, cannot connect to a VPN independently.

If you’re unsure about how a VPN works or what exactly it does, you can read our comprehensive guide on it here.

But before we go further into the VPN, let’s start by peeking at the hardware a little bit first.

Hardware

The router that ExpressVPN uses is a mid-range Linksys WRT1200AC. One of the more popular models, the device is flexible to the user’s needs and offers a wide range of features for any person.

The general design of the Linksys is nothing radical, and is pretty much what one might think of when they think of a router. The main shell comprises of aluminium and immediately gives you a sense of a premium product.

It has two antennas on the back, one for 2.4gHz and another for 5gHz. The 5gHz frequency allows for faster broadcast times over shorter distances, as compared to the 2.4gHz which goes farther out but at a slower speed.

I found the broadcast range acceptable and average – the 2.4gHz will go a lot farther than the 5gHz however, and I didn’t see too much difference in terms of speed. Although, you probably will if you have a fast enough internet line.

Inside the router, you’ll find a typical ARM-based dual-core processor that has 256MB DDR3 RAM, along with 128MB of flash storage. While the specs may sound dismal when compared to cellphones, it’s important to remember that routers need much less resources as compared to other devices.

In fact, the specs listed above are rather good for a router, and at no time whatsoever did I feel like the router couldn’t keep up while I was streaming or I had lots of devices connected at once.

In terms of connections and ports, the router has four Gigabit Ethernet LAN output ports and one Gigabit WAN (Internet) input port. It also features a USB 3.0 port and another port that can work as either a USB 2.0 or an eSATA, meaning that the router can host media and act as a server.

The LED lights that grace the front of the router that show Internet connections and WiFi status are also very comprehensive, to the point that you can customize them to go totally off regardless of activity or even change their colour depending of what’s happening. This is a very handy feature that I liked about the router as the LED’s are the main source of communication that you have with it.

ExpressVPN uses this router to install their own software on it, allowing you to connect to their VPN through it.

ExpressVPN

This is where the router gets quite interesting. ExpressVPN has their own operating system for routers that can be flashed over the original software, sort of in the way that phone owners install CyanogenMod on their devices to extend its capabilities.

This software allows you to have the original features of the router – on top of a VPN.

After plugging the router in and logging into the router settings, I was immediately blown away at the presentation of ExpressVPN’s software – it was somewhat professional and gave a positive impression that ExpressVPN did the router properly.

You might be wondering now about subscriptions and accounts and stuff – but don’t be frightened. Setup is straight forward.

Firstly, you need to sign up for ExpressVPN and choose from one of the packages- dependant on your needs, of course. Once that is done, you get a universal key that can be used on any device. Of course, because you have the ExpressVPN router, you only need to put it in once instead of entering into all your devices.

Once the key is entered, you can then choose your country and adjust a few other minor settings. Speaking from experience, ExpressVPN is one the VPN’s that offer the most amount of countries. Locations range from Kazakhstan to New York. This is definitely a strong point as a location closer to you results in faster speeds.

You may see that there’s actually an update available – a good sign already that ExpressVPN continuously supports and updates it.

I found this entire setup process extremely easy to carry out. Almost everyone would be able to set it up at home.

The rest of the router interface is easy to use. You’ll find settings where you’d expect them to be in the menu, and changing them is straightforward – no complicated terms or jargon to confuse you.

In terms of the actual VPN connection, I found it incredibly stable, but there is indeed a slight speed drop. This will ultimately depend a lot on your location and server, as previously discussed.

In the event that the VPN connection drops, all internet traffic is blocked until reconnection or manual override.

If there’s anywhere where the router could improve, I’d point out that some advanced software features would be appreciated. For example, QoS (Quality of service) ensures that the bandwidth gets shared equally and prevents users from hogging the network. It’s a setting that I could not find, and if it’s already implemented deep in the router, I could not adjust its settings.

That being said, the router does offer some nifty software features, like a real-time graph of network traffic.

In all, I found the VPN router a worthy device. It’s a simple idea that ExpressVPN turned into a powerful tool to ensure that your security and identity comes first. It’s one a a few in the market and it does the job perfectly.

The cheaper model (the one in this review) will set you back about $150, while the better models will obviously set you back more. There’s a comprehensive guide from ExpressVPN about purchasing a router over here.

The product used in this review was supplied by the manufacturer for purposes of a fair and honest review. We write and score our reviews independently of any kind of monetary or product compensation. If you have questions about our review or feel that we were at all unfair, we encourage you to leave a comment so we may engage you in discussion about it.

What is IMAX VR and where can I check it out?

Where can I try out IMAX VR?

IMAX, the larger-than-life movie experience, has joined ranks with virtual reality to create a futuristic union of enormous fun. Here’s what you need to know and where you can try out IMAX VR for yourself.

Read more at VR Heads!

Sony’s new PlayStation headset is premium in name alone

There’s no shortage of gaming headsets on the market, and in an effort to distinguish themselves, manufacturers are turning to gimmicks to stand out from the competition. Sony, for example, has several PlayStation-branded pairs, and now it’s adding another to the mix, in hopes that 3D audio will be enough to earn your $150. After spending some time with the new PlayStation Platinum Wireless Headset, though, I’m not sure it deserves its asking price.

I came away unimpressed by the company’s last headset, the Gold Wireless, so I was hoping that a higher-end-sounding name would translate to better headphones. In terms of construction, the Platinum definitely feels more solid than its predecessor, but it isn’t quite as premium as the name suggests. For instance, the only non-plastic bit is a brushed aluminum band connecting the two arms. The only foam padding, meanwhile, is on the ear cups. And instead of offering cushioning on the headband, there’s a flexible rubber strap that’s supposed to stretch to accommodate your noggin.

My admittedly large head has never gotten along with this kind of padding design, and that’s true here as well. After 20 minutes, I was acutely aware of the rubber strap pressing against my skull. After 40 minutes, I couldn’t wait to take them off. That doesn’t bode well for a device you’re supposed to wear for extended periods of time. Of course, this is entirely subjective — if you have a smaller head than I do, you might not have this problem.

The ear cups are more comfortable. They fit well around my ears, and the padding was nice and plush. The attached arms fold up for easy storage, but when they’re closed they don’t lock in place, which allows them to wiggle around. Still, they’re better at staying closed than the flimsy Gold edition was.

At least setup is as simple as ever. Simply plug the wireless adapter into an open USB slot on your PS4 and that’s about it. It’s worth noting that while setting up the device using the Wireless Headset companion app, the Platinums were the only thing I could have plugged in. Leaving my PSVR connected via USB caused an issue with pairing the headset to my console. Same goes for wirelessly adding new audio presets. The latter is super-convenient, making swapping between presets a cinch. What’s more, there are two slots for different audio presets, and this time around both are customizable.

The thing is, in use, the presets really don’t sound too different from each other. I used the Uncharted 4 preset for a few games of Rocket League, for instance, and then swapped to the Last Guardian preset and couldn’t tell anything had changed.

But what about the 3D audio? As of now, the only non-VR game that supports it is last spring’s Uncharted 4. Sony promises the selection will expand over time. Naughty Dog’s audio design is always impeccable, but chances are you’ve already played through the game a few times by now and aren’t going to return. Turning it on, footsteps in the snow sounded a bit more nuanced against the wind snaking through a Scottish cave, and sounds like water drips were a touch more distinct.

There are some interesting reverb effects, and certain sounds have more space between them in the soundscape, but turning the effect on didn’t help much. In fact, the bass is a little deeper when that effect is turned off. This is likely the result of compression. When you turn the 3D audio switch on, the changes it makes are subtle and bring out nuances in the sound effects you otherwise wouldn’t hear. It’s like hitting the “Mega Bass” button on an old Sony Walkman, but doesn’t produce as stark a change.

Unlike traditional games, however, every PSVR title supports 3D audio. The thing is, you have to connect the Platinum to the PSVR’s in-line audio controller via an aux cable to use it. So it adds another cord to an already cluttered setup. Plugging in has another downside in addition to the inconvenience: The volume isn’t nearly as loud. You also lose onboard controls for changing volume and turning the 3D audio/virtual surround off.

As far as actual sound quality goes, I prefer Turtle Beach’s Stealth 350VR headset. It’s amplified (the Platinum isn’t when connected to PSVR), so the sound is not only louder, but richer as well. Also, it costs just $100, compared with $150 for the Platinum, and fits well over the virtual reality helmet. As for the Platinum, it’s pretty snug, but the PSVR’s headset helped keep the Platinum’s rubber strap from pushing against the top of my head.

As it stands, there’s no reason to buy the Platinum headset just yet. For $10 more, you can get the well-reviewed Astro A30, which, while it doesn’t support 3D audio, still sounds great, and you can use it with multiple consoles, not just the PlayStation 4. The Platinum is a definite step up from Sony’s Gold headset in terms of fit and finish, but the flagship feature — 3D audio — still doesn’t have wide enough games support to justify the price.

Recommended Reading: The Wii U wasn’t for everyone

The Wii U Was Great,
Just Not For Me
Luke Plunkett,
Kotaku

Before Nintendo revealed all the details about its upcoming Switch console, a lot of us took a moment to reflect on its predecessor: the Wii U. While the console offered compelling gamine experiences for some, it wasn’t for everyone. Kotaku discusses just that, including its appeal among younger players.

SpaceX’s comeback launch was a success

2016 was a fairly good year for SpaceX, with Elon Musk’s spaceflight company inching closer to developing a reusable rocket for missions. At least up until September, when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a pre-launch test on the pad at Cape Canaveral. The company quickly investigated and found that the craft’s liquid oxygen had leaked out of a tank, with the resulting friction causing ignition. At last, however, SpaceX is ready to turn a corner: the private outfit has returned to flight by launching a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, delivering 10 Iridium Next satellites into orbit.

The launch also included a successful landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage aboard a SpaceX drone ship, Just Read the Instructions — the first time a rocket has landed on the vessel, in fact. While this isn’t the first-ever drone ship landing, it’s clearly another feather in Elon Musk’s cap.

Launch moving due to high winds and rains at Vandenberg. Other range conflicts this week results in next available launch date being Jan 14.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 8, 2017

The company had planned to get back into the business of shooting things into space by December, but that date was pushed back to January. Between then and now, SpaceX has continued to test the safety of its setup and received reauthorization from the FAA. Unfortunately, poor weather had led to another postponement until today.

The launch is crucial to both Iridium and SpaceX, as you might guess. For Iridium, this is the first step toward completing a constellation of 70-plus satellites that will blanket the Earth with coverage. It’s arguably much more important for SpaceX, though. The September incident shook confidence in the company’s ability to reliably deliver payloads to space. This isn’t a guarantee that everything is back to normal (that will take months or even years), but it’s reassuring for satellite makers, NASA and other organizations that want to lean on SpaceX as a partner.

Jon Fingas contributed to this report.

Source: SpaceX