Watch a wooden topographical map rise before your eyes when you turn the handle

Why it matters to you

Do you think the clockwork-inspired Game of Thrones intro is pretty cool? Then check out this gorgeous hand-cranked topographical creation that rises up when you turn the handle.

Game of Thrones fans are no doubt familiar with the show’s excellent title sequence, in which the fictitious world the show depicts is illustrated for the viewer via a map animated with various clockwork mechanisms.

Well, three industrial design students from Philadelphia University — Charles Barilo, Peter Holderith and Zachary Samalonis — have just brought a similar idea to life with a hand-cranked machine that causes a topographical map to emerge from a flat surface when its handle is turned.

More: 3D-printed topographical maps could help bring classroom lessons to life

“The inspiration was the painting ‘Grand Canyon of the Colorado River,’ by Thomas Moran,” Barilo, 19, one of the freshmen involved with the project, told Digital Trends. “The portion of the map you see rising is an actual bend in the Colorado River. The thought of being able to create a moving topographical map seemed very appealing to the three of us and our professors.”

The piece was created for the final project of the trio’s first semester. It answered a design brief called “exploration through motion” that has been run by the department for more than a decade, and is always a favorite of the class.

The team started by visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art to pick a painting to base their machine around. After developing the idea of bringing the topography to life, they then designed a concept in Adobe Illustrator, before getting to work with a CNC router and laser cutter to create the different complex pieces.

“Assembly for the device took four or five days, in which we made necessary adjustments to make sure the gears meshed correctly, and ensure the entire machine flowed seamlessly,” Barilo continued. “Throughout the whole process we took, videos and documented it to create a process video so people could see how it all came together.”

In something of a rare move, though, the three aren’t taking their much-admired design down the crowdfunding route now that it’s finished — which means you’ll have to shelve those dreams of having it as the stylish centerpiece in your apartment. For now, at least.

“While we don’t have any current plans to sell the machine, or build more to sell, we still have all of the Illustrator files and CAD files if we ever decided to create another machine of this sort,” Barilo said. “The current machine takes a lot of tinkering to get it to work seamlessly, and a lot of time to construct, but if we could make something similar that could be reproduced and also provide the feeling that we felt when it rose from its base in front of our entire design department on the day of the presentation, that would be pretty amazing. Unfortunately, with all three of us still being full-time students, and having professors to please, these plans probably won’t come to fruition in the near future.”

That doesn’t stop it from being an awesome piece of work, however. Something tells us we haven’t heard the last of these three talented creators.

Elsa delivers the first single-slot GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, but only in Japan

Why it matters to you

If you have a really small PC that can only fit a single-slot graphics card, then Elsa gives you some hope with its newest GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Nvidia’s Pascal GPU architecture spawned some excellent graphics cards, from the low-end GeForce GTX 1050 that can fit in a small PC and sips power from the motherboard to the high-end GeForce GTX 1080 that rips through every modern gaming and virtual reality title. While Nvidia’s newest GPUs can be used in a host of different systems, there have been a few holes to plug.

One specific form factor where the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti can’t fit, for example, are space-constrained PC cases where only a single-slot graphics card will comfortably fit. That is all changing, as Elsa announced a new GTX 1050 Ti card that can squeeze into a single slot, Anandtech reports.

More: Nvidia’s new GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti aim to put your aging desktop back in the game

The Elsa GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SP fits into such a tight space by compacting its cooling system. The card uses a fairly typical fan and aluminum heatsink. The Elsa GTX 1050 Ti is also a 75-watt card, meaning it doesn’t need any additional power supply than what can be pulled from its PCIe slot.

In terms of other specifications, the ELSA GTX 1050 Ti offers three display connectors, including HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4, and dual-link DVI-D. That means it should work well with just about any modern single-monitor setup and support up to three displays with perhaps a few adapters. The GPU is a GP107 with 768 stream processors, 48 texture units, and 32 ROPs, clocked at 1,290MHz base speed and boosted up to 1,392MHz. That means it’s a full GTX 1050 Ti implementation, with 4GB of GDDR5 video memory.

Elsa will be shipping the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SP in Japan on February 24. There is no word yet on pricing and the company hasn’t announced it for any other countries. As Anandtech notes, you will be able to buy the card from Amazon Japan, but you will pay a little more given the import taxes and presumably support might be a bit spotty. It is likely that other manufacturers will also make single-slot GTX 1050 Ti solutions, but until then, we are left hoping that Elsa decides to expand the card’s availability.

Leaked technical slides reveal Ryzen’s carefully monitored cores

Why it matters to you

AMD is gearing up for a comeback with its Ryzen processors and these potential features should help ensure it goes smoothly.

Ever since AMD announced the new Ryzen processors in early December, there has been a steady stream of information leaks, alleged benchmarks, and even a handful of possible stock keeping units a few days ago. So it should come as no surprise that a handful of slides have made their way onto the web going more in-depth with AMD’s latest and greatest.

In fact, it appears most of the presentation is uploaded on the Japanese site PC Watch despite the fact that none of the information was intended for the public, at least yet. There is a lot to parse through there and a lot of it is overly technical, but at least a few slides may have implications on the end-user experience.

More: AMD’s Ryzen desktop processor box art, details, and pricing leak before launch

Notably, AMD takes the time to compare the new Zen core with an unnamed-but-probably-Intel competing chip. Not only does the Zen die come in at a slightly smaller footprint than the competitor, which is also 14nm, but it manages to squeeze in L2 cache much more efficiently.

There is also some information on the way the Zen chips handle heat and power. Through a combination of more than 1,300 path monitors, 48 power supply monitors, 20 thermal diodes, and nine droop detectors, the chip is constantly gathering massive amounts of data. This usage data can be flipped back around and used for identifying stronger cores, providing perfect power to every part of the chip, and pushing clock speeds to their absolute maximum.

There are some other interesting facts stashed away among the slides. The Zen architecture will adopt simultaneous multithreading, a more traditional multi-tasking process akin to Intel’s Hyper-Threading. Per-core voltage and frequency control appear to be platform-wide features and despite a huge possible voltage range, all chips carry a 3.4GHz or higher base clock speed.

While it is always good to take leaks and rumors with a grain of salt, it is hard to see much benefit in leaking fake processor technicalities. We are also close enough to an alleged release that this sort of information should be making its way to possible partners and engineers. These modern features should help accelerate the hype on an already promising release and, if they are true, we’ll know soon enough.

Get $150 off a top-notch 2-in-1 laptop — the Microsoft Surface Pro 4

Any PC ends up performing best when you keep in mind how you’ll be using it before you actually make a purchase. Some are better for stationary activities, while others are completely portable, ideal for multitasking. If the latter more accurately describes your lifestyle, consider the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, currently available for $650 — a $150 discount — at Best Buy.

A robust PC, the Surface Pro 4 is the latest model of the series and comes packed with some noteworthy improvements. Digital Trends got its hands on the Surface Pro 4 last year and concluded that it’s a top-notch 2-in-1 PC. Highlights include an impressive new type cover, a high-performing pen, a pixel-dense display, loud and clear speakers, and strong overall performance. The screen is a notable upgrade from the Surface 3 — it’s gone from 12 to 12.3 inches — with a pixel count that’s been upped to 2,736 x 1,824, which produces more pixels per inch than the iPad Pro. Other hardware upgrades include 16GB of RAM, up from 8GB, and a base hard drive that now offers 128GB, up from 64GB.

More: The Best Laptop You Can Buy

The device is lightweight, weighing in at about 1.7 pounds without accessories, and just over 2.3 pounds with the type cover and pen included. It’s bulky for a tablet, but light for a computer, meaning Microsoft has set up the Pro properly for use as either a PC or tablet. Buttons are conveniently placed and the laptop brick itself has a USB port, so you can charge your phone without using the USB 3.0 port. The type cover is larger than those of previous models, works as well as most dedicated laptops, and offers a major edge over many competitors. The pen is also a major upgrade — it has four times the sensitivity of the Surface 3’s pen and has a real eraser that makes it more useful than the keypad at times.

The Surface Pro 4 runs Windows 10 Pro, Office, and other professional software, has 128 GB of storage, with extra storage capacity available via the MicroSD card slot. It has two dual cameras with autofocus: a 8-megapixel camera in the rear and a 5-megapixel camera in the front. It also has an integrated kickstand and attachable keyboard.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 normally retails for $800, but you can snag one on Best Buy for only $650, saving you $150, or 19 percent.

$650 on Best Buy

NBA and Google partner up to produce VR talk show with NBA greats

Get in the game like never before!

It’s the NBA All-Star Weekend and, this year, the NBA is allowing fans more access to their favorite athletes, by working with Google to create new virtual reality experiences for fans. One of the more interesting ideas that’s rolling out this weekend is called House of Legends, an episodic sports talk show hosted by retired NBA players such as James Worthy, Bruce Bowen, Chauncey Billups, John Starks and others, and presented in virtual reality via Google’s Daydream platform.

Fans will have the opportunity to virtually sit down with these NBA greats as they share stories from their careers and discuss league happenings and other topics of conversation. To get in on the fun, you’ll need a Daydream View and a Daydream-compatible phone, then it’s simply a matter of downloading the NBA VR app from the Google Play Store. Expect weekly episodes to pop up in the app over the remainder of the NBA season.

The NBA VR app will also be packed with highlights and other content available on demand. If you can’t make it down to New Orleans for the festivities in person, VR might just provide the next best experience.

This isn’t the first time the NBA has dipped it’s toes into the world of VR, as the Association has been incorporating VR experiences throughout the 2016-17 season. Through a partnership with NextVR, NBA League Pass subscribers have the option to live stream preselected games every week in 360-degree VR with either a Google Daydream or Samsung Gear VR headset. You get a court side seat for the game right by the scorer’s table, which is as good as any seat you’d find on StubHub. Again you need to be an NBA League Pass subscriber for access and local blackout restrictions do apply.

You can find more information along with the remaining schedule of games here, and you’ll need the NextVR app for either Oculus (Samsung Gear VR) or Google Play (Daydream) to buy your virtual seat for the game.

How Android theming helped me find my inner artist

I’m all about expressing myself.

I’m the girl with the Disney shirt on every day, with a beautiful case for my phone, my headphones on top of my jeep cap, and a song in my heart, if not on my lips. I spent some of my schooling years hiding who I am as a means to escape bullying, and I’m done with that. I’m done with hiding. I believe in being who I am and I believe in showing who I am in the technology I rock.

And this is why I theme.

Your smartphone is one of the most basic and personal extensions of your body in the “post-PC age”. I was the kid in school that would spend hours editing tons of awesome wallpapers for my desktop, and when I got an Android phone, you bet your sweet ass I scoured the internet for awesome wallpapers to put on it. But we don’t have to stop at the wallpaper on Android. We’re not Apple, for Duarte’s sake, we’re Android, and Android is all about personalization!

Some of my early themes. Go easy on me, my tastes were still developing.

When I got an Android phone, you bet your sweet ass I scoured the internet for awesome wallpapers.

Believe it or not, for the first couple of years on Android, I didn’t bother with icon packs for my themes. I would find a good wallpaper, and then I would create dock icons to match the theme, since my dock was all folders anyway.

Then I’d get together about a dozen ringtones and notification tones to give to my starred contacts and favorite apps, expressing my musical tastes as well as telling me who or what was calling before I pulled my phone out of my flares.

Things were fine… then I found Nova Launcher. And Android was suddenly brand-new.

Nova Launcher was my first custom launcher, and it’s the one I’ve stuck with. I dabble with Action Launcher and others from time to time for specialized projects and to see how green the seaweed is in other lakes, but Nova was where I had my theming revelation, and it’s where I gladly build (almost) all my themes to this day.

Icon packs were easy to apply and easy to tweak individual icons on, folders were bigger, more functional, and more beautiful than ever, and then there were the gesture actions. I was in love.

When I build a theme, there’s always an instinctive desire to share them. Call it the digital version of showing your parents your school art project. I was sharing them on social media years ago, and after writing for Android Central, I decided to share my themes with our readers.

It’s a bubbly little feeling to hear people are trying out my themes, that my themes can spur them to make their phones look better and feel better for them. It’s why I’m always hunting for good theme ideas and great wallpapers to build them on.

I love to share my themes because my themes are an extension of myself and my style. I love to build my themes so that I can try new styles and new workflows in pursuit of the perfect home screen. And I’m about to dive into some wicked Beauty and the Beast themes, so if you know any characters or wallpapers you want to see me use, holler at me!

Softbank still wants Sprint and T-Mobile to merge

If at first you don’t succeed …

CNBC reports that Softbank still has goals of a Sprint / T-Mobile merger becoming a valid number three carrier in the U.S. and it has a novel way of getting it to happen this time: giving control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom and becoming a minor partner in a new combined network.

In 2014, Softbank, which owned Sprint after a $21.6 billion 2013 investment, was set to purchase T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom. Both parties had agreed on terms and regulatory approval was the last step. The merger was denied by U.S. lawmakers and Softbank set its eyes on making Sprint a profitable and viable third-place carrier with plans to move on AT&T and Verizon’s dominance.

Both companies involved are having a good day in the market with Sprint shares up more than 3.5% and T-Mobile shares up over 4%.

That also didn’t pan out as planned, and now Softbank is discussing an end-around play that would make Bill Belichick proud. The company thinks it can relinquish control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom (for a healthy sum, no doubt) so the German communications giant can merge T-Mobile and Sprint on its own. Softbank would hold a minority ownership of the company and the assets from both DT and Softbank could be enough to push against the current duopoly in the U.S. telecommunications market.

While both companies declined any official comment to CNBC, Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told analysts in February, “We may buy, we may sell. Maybe a simple merger, we may be dealing with T-Mobile, we may be dealing with totally different people, different company.”

While Sprint has struggled to gain ground, T-Mobile has made strides with customer growth quarter after quarter since a failed AT&T buyout in 2011. Combining the customer base and network footprint of the two companies would move closer to the big lead Verizon and AT&T hold in the U.S. market. Everyone makes money and all is well in the world of expensive suits and boardrooms.

Of course, there’s no telling how any FTC or FCC ruling would go were this to happen, and as of today, everything is still speculation. We’ll all just have to wait and see how things play out and hope that whatever happens is good for customers as well as corporate bank accounts.

Moto Z Mod puts a walkie-talkie on your phone 

Motorola has been encouraging enterprising hardware hackers to create Mods at contests around the globe for the Moto Z smartphone, though so far results have been somewhat limited. The latest Mod to make its way to an Indiegogo project is the Linc radio — a nifty little walkie-talkie Mod that the creators say will let you stay in touch at a range of up to six miles without cell service.

Linc operates on consumer-level frequencies (GMRS/FRS) with 121 private channels to allow you a chatter-free experience, even in busy areas like a ski resort. The Mod can also send SMS or transmit voice to a single buddy on a ski lift, or to a group of friends waiting for you at the hotel bar. You can even send out your GPS location from your smartphone without cell service. The Mod is water- and dust-resistant, and will act as a NOAA weather radio and emergency beacon. The Linc has its own 1,500 mAh battery for 20 hours of standby time, and can even communicate with other conventional two-way radios.

While the Mod is made to connect “seamlessly” to the Moto Z, Linc says that the unit will work with any smartphone via Bluetooth. If you’re up for supporting the project, you can order one of your own with a pledge of $99 on Indiegogo right now.

Via: The Verge

Source: Indiegogo

Climate change skeptic Scott Pruitt confirmed as EPA Administrator

Immediately after his inauguration, President Trump got to work on his long-anticipated plan to gut the Environmental Protection Agency. His administration wants to review all research coming out of it on a “case by case” basis and placed a gag order on employees, but waited on more until the agency’s new chief made it through the Congressional gauntlet. Despite heavy opposition from Democrats and workers from the department he’d be heading, the Senate confirmed climate change skeptic Scott Pruitt as administrator of the EPA today.

The close 52-46 vote was nearly along party lines aside from aisle-switching by Susan Collins (R-ME) to oppose and Joe Manchin III (D-WV) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), both from coal-rich states, to support. Democrats fought all night to delay the confirmation vote until next Tuesday, after which the Oklahoma attorney general’s office is ordered to release 3,000 of Pruitt’s emails concerning his communications with the fossil fuel industry, according to The New York Times.

Since early December when Trump announced Pruitt as his pick to head the agency, reporters and environmentalists were quick to point out his numerous lawsuits against the EPA in his position as attorney general of Oklahoma. This singular drive to challenge national environmental law aimed to return all regulatory power to states — convenient for an AG with such close ties to the fossil fuel industry, as when he reprinted a note from an oil and gas company nearly word-for-word on his letterhead and sent it to the EPA in 2011. Who knows how much of the department will be left now that its frequent enemy is heading it.

Source: The New York Times

Nintendo Switch eShop purchases will be tied to your account

Rejoice, Nintendo fans! Your eShop purchases on the Switch will be tied to your account and not the hardware, according to a new unboxing video.

Unlike Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo currently doesn’t allow you to redownload digital purchases. They’re tied to the piece of hardware you buy them on, not to a unified account system. If you replace your console, those games are lost. Fans have criticized the practice for years, and it appears Nintendo has finally listened.

After NeoGaf user “hiphoptherobot” accidentally received his Switch pre-order early, he agreed to do an unboxing video for fighting game community YouTube channel FloKO.

In the video, at the 2:59 mark, there’s this bit of fine print:

“Your Nintendo Account contains your Nintendo eShop purchase history and current balance. By re-linking your Nintendo Account after initializing the console, it will be possible to redownload any software or DLC purchased using that account. (Software that has been discontinued may not be available to redownload in some cases.)”

Giving gamers an easier way to manage their digital libraries is long overdue. We’ve contacted Nintendo to confirm the change to its online services, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.

Via: Polygon

Source: YouTube