Fill your SteamVR Home lounge with gaming collectibles

SteamVR established its Home as the service’s launch screen last month, a digital lounge for players to customize as they pore through their game libraries. Now you can start filling it with collectibles you unlock while playing through their respective games, functioning like bragging rights as much as artistic flourishes for any friend you invite over.

The items are specifically from VR titles, and Steam partnered with studios to release models authentic to the characters, creatures and items appearing in those games. Virtual reality successes like Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption alongside ten others (including Dota 2 and Serious Sam: The Last Hope) provided custom models to fill up your digital personal space or fit on your avatar. While there’s no indication when the next batch will come, Valve’s blog post indicates there will be more tchotchkes from other games.

Source: Valve

Researchers map a building in 3D using WiFi-enabled drones

Turns out WiFi is good for more than just sharing cat GIFs with your friends. Researchers at the Mostofi Lab at UC Santa Barbara have created a system that “sees” inside buildings using two drones and WiFi.

To pull this off, the drones are each equipped with WiFi transceivers and fly in tandem outside the target building. One of the UAVs then transmits a WiFi signal while the second one reads the corresponding received power. Throw in a bunch of advanced math and the data is translated into a 3D image of the internals of the building with some impressive results.

The Mostofi Lab is no stranger to using radio waves to penetrate walls. In 2010 it published its first demonstration of imaging using WiFi. “However, enabling 3D through-wall imaging of real areas is considerably more challenging due to the considerable increase in the number of unknowns,” professor Yasamin Mostofi told UCSB’s The Current.

This research could help emergency response teams do sweeps of buildings without putting first responders in unnecessary danger. The lab also noted it could be used for archaeological and structural monitoring.

Via: The Current

Source: Mostofi Lab

Drone Racing League season two starts tomorrow on ESPN

In case you were looking for a new sport to follow now that the NBA and NHL seasons have ended, ESPN is giving something different a shot, and it’s not esports. The second season of the Drone Racing League — now branded Allianz World Championship Series — is about to get started Tuesday night at 8PM ET, with pilots directing identical Racer3 aircraft through larger courses than last year. The drones themselves are more powerful and rugged enough to possibly survive a collision, which DRL head of product Ryan Gury explained “also makes it a much more sexy and attractive drone.” Of course, if you’re spending this week tuned in to draft / free agency news, the entire broadcast schedule is included below.

Drone Racing League Season 2 schedule

• Tue, June 20 8 p.m. Drone Racing: Miami (Semi-Finals) ESPN2
• Wed, June 21 9 p.m. Drone Racing: Miami (Finals) ESPN2
• Tues, June 27 8 p.m. Drone Racing: Atlanta (Semi-Finals) ESPN2
• Wed, June 28 8 p.m. Drone Racing: Atlanta (Finals) ESPN2
• Tues, July 4 9 p.m. Drone Racing: New Orleans (Semi-Finals) ESPN2
• Wed, July 5 8 p.m. Drone Racing: New Orleans (Finals) ESPN2
• Wed, July 12 12 a.m. Drone Racing: Boston (Semi-Finals) ESPN2
• Wed, July 12 10 p.m. Drone Racing: Boston (Finals) ESPN
• Tues, July 18 8 p.m. Drone Racing: Playoffs (Round 1 – Munich) ESPN2
• Wed, July 19 7 p.m. Drone Racing: Playoffs (Elimination Round – Munich) ESPN2
• Tues, July 25 11 p.m. Drone Racing: Road to the Championship ESPN2
• Fri, July 28 9 p.m. Drone Racing: 2017 Championship (Elimination – London) ESPN
• Fri, July 28 10 p.m. Drone Racing: 2017 Championship (Final – London) ESPN

The 2017 season is here. Watch the premiere on Tuesday, June 20 on @ESPN 2 at 8 PM pic.twitter.com/vC00HD8wTL

— Drone Racing League (@DroneRaceLeague) June 16, 2017

Source: ESPN, Drone Racing League

Kensington’s $350 Thunderbolt 3 Dock Features ‘Zero Footprint’ Mounting, Security Lock Slot

We’ve already taken a look at several of the Thunderbolt 3 docks all coming to the market right around the same time, and popular enterprise accessory company Kensington is getting into the mix today with the launch of the SD5000T Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station, the company’s first foray into Thunderbolt peripherals. Priced at $349.99, Kensington’s dock is similar to many of the other options on the market with a horizontal design and an array of ports, as well as a full 85 watts of charging power to support even the 15-inch MacBook Pro over a single-cable connection.

The SD5000T offers a number of port options, including dual Thunderbolt 3 ports to enable pass-through connections, a DisplayPort port for additional display connectivity, separate audio in and out ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. With the DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 ports and any necessary adapters such as for HDMI or DVI, the SD5000T supports up to dual 4K external displays.

As for USB, the dock includes one Type-A and one Type-C port on the front and one Type-A port on the rear, all running at 5 Gbps. We’d like to see a couple more USB ports on there for greater expansion possibilities, but three is pretty standard for these types of docks. The USB ports also do not support standalone charging, so a connected computer will need to be on in order for peripherals to charge via the dock. The front USB Type-A port does, however, support up to 2.1 amps for fast charging, while the USB Type-C port offers up to 15 watts of power to drive bus-powered peripherals.

Kensington is famous for its ubiquitous security cables to help keep expensive electronics from walking away, and so it’s probably unsurprising that even the company’s Thunderbolt 3 dock includes a lock slot to accommodate a security cable. It’s a unique feature that should appeal to corporate customers looking to secure their employees’ accessories around the workplace.

VESA mounting position options
In another nice touch, the SD5000T supports optional “Zero Footprint Mounting,” which uses a mounting accessory (sold separately) to attach the dock to the rear of 75 mm or 100 mm VESA-compatible external displays. The mounting system gets the dock up and out of the way from the user’s desk, and while it makes it a bit more difficult to connect and disconnect accessories in some orientations, once you have your setup in place it should help keep things looking neater.

While Kensington is targeting its existing primary enterprise user base with the SD5000T, the company tells MacRumors that given the popularity of docking stations across all users it is also looking to appeal to consumers, with retailers like Amazon and B&H Photo stocking the dock.

The SD5000T Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station is launching today, and Kensington says it will begin shipping out orders later this week.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and B&H and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Tags: Thunderbolt 3, Kensington
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Research finds deadly heatwaves will occur more often

A study published today in Nature Climate Change predicts that deadly heatwaves will become more frequent in the future. The study found that currently, around 30 percent of the world experiences life-threatening heat for at least 20 days per year. But if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, that number could jump up to 74 percent by 2100.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa looked through peer-reviewed articles published between 1980 and 2014 and found over 900 that included data on instances of deadly heatwaves. In total, there were almost 800 cases of deadly heat occurring in 36 countries. These included events like the 2003 heatwave that led to nearly 5,000 deaths in Paris and the 2010 heatwave that killed over 10,000 people in Moscow.

The scientists then analyzed these events to determine at what thresholds temperature and humidity levels become deadly. They applied that information to current climate data to calculate how much of the population experiences deadly heat each year and used temperature and humidity projections to see how that would likely change in the future. Even when those projections were based on a future with drastically reduced greenhouse gas emissions, it was still bad news. In those cases, 48 percent of the world’s population was projected to experience at least 20 annual days of deadly heat by 2100.

The findings highlight the need to begin getting greenhouse gas emissions under control, but with the current administration’s disregard for climate data, that’s not likely to happen any time soon. To see for yourself how these projections change over time, the researchers have provided a horrifying web-app for you to do so.

Source: Nature

Spotify test rents playlist slots to music labels

Spotify is already letting labels determine what you’re allowed to play on its free tier. Now, however, it’s giving labels the chance to insert songs of their own. TechCrunch has confirmed that Spotify is testing a “Sponsored Song” program that slips tracks into playlists you follow, and possibly elsewhere on the service. You wouldn’t be forced to listen to a song, to be clear — you could even opt out (unfortunately, it’s not opt-in) to avoid seeing them. However, it might catch you off-guard if a brand new single slips into the rotation alongside your all-time favorites.

You could see a wider rollout if the test is successful, Spotify says. Logically, paying subscribers wouldn’t have to worry about invading songs.

As our TC colleagues note, the approach will sound familiar: it’s basically a more transparent, modern-day take on radio payola, where labels paid DJs to play songs that otherwise wouldn’t get airtime. It likely wouldn’t face the legal issues that payola did (the sponsored music is explicitly labeled and optional), but it’d still have the same effect of propping up music that you might not seek out on your own.

Spotify has plenty of reasons to adopt Sponsored Songs in spite of the potential backlash. Although it’s getting better at racking up paid subscribers, most of its customers (90 million out of 140 million) are free listeners. There’s only so much money Spotify can make by running ads every few tracks, and pay-for-play might help Spotify turn an elusive profit. Also, this could give Spotify more sway over labels. Want to guarantee that your song hits the top 40? Be prepared to pay up or cut a better royalty deal. While labels might leap at the opportunity, they could wind up in Spotify’s pocket.

Source: TechCrunch

Nintendo Switch update makes it easy to find missing Joycons

Nintendo’s latest Switch update doesn’t exactly come with anything mind blowing, but it has huge list of improvements people have been asking for. One of those is the ability to find paired controllers by making them vibrate. Unless they’re too far into the abyss known as the inside of your couch, that would make it easier to find those relatively tiny JoyCons, especially if you have the black ones. Do you use a pro controller instead? Well, take note that the version 3.0.0 update makes it possible to plug it in and use it as a wired option to avoid input lag.

In case what you’ve been yearning for is getting the latest news for the games you love, all you’ve got to do is head to News and register channels using the ‘Find Channels options.’ Nintendo has also made it possible to easily add old 3DS and Wii U friends if you think adding people is a chore — just find those old contacts through “Friend Suggestions” on the top left of the Home menu.

You now also don’t have to struggle with typing on an onscreen keyboard when you can now plug a USB keyboard into the dock. In addition, the latest Switch OS prevents HDMI input change that happens with some TVs when the Switch is docked in Sleep Mode. Your console will automatically download all these and more when it senses that it’s online, though you can always manually start the process in System Settings if you absolutely cannot wait.

Source: Nintendo

NASA found ten Earth-size planets with conditions ideal for water

Remember when everyone went nuts over the seven Earth-like planets the Spitzer telescope found back in February shortly after Trump was inaugurated? If you’re still keen to leave, NASA has released a batch of 219 recently-discovered planet candidates — including ten near-Earth size that orbit in their star’s habitable zone.

Scientists used the famed Kepler Space Telescope to find this particular catalog, bringing the total number of candidates found by the orbiting instrument up to 4,034. But only 50 of those are about the size and appropriate distance from their star where liquid water could pool on the surface. This ideal sliver of area, known as the “habitable zone,” might have the right conditions to foster life — and the latest batch adds ten more of these very rare potential planets.

The Kepler telescope didn’t just spot this new selection: NASA has been analyzing cosmic images captured by the spacecraft from 2009-2013 and periodically released their results in batches. This latest group’s larger occurrence of Earth-size, habitably-zoned planets is a happy accident, and one that illustrates NASA’s ultimate goal in processing all the telescope-collected data: To better categorize planets across the universe and improve the search for more potentials Earths.

“The Kepler data set is unique, as it is the only one containing a population of these near Earth-analogs -– planets with roughly the same size and orbit as Earth,” said Mario Perez, Kepler program scientist in the Astrophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a press release. “Understanding their frequency in the galaxy will help inform the design of future NASA missions to directly image another Earth.”

Source: NASA

What’s on TV: ‘Better Call Saul,’ ‘Fargo’ and ‘Silicon Valley’ finales

Now that the NBA/NHL finals and E3 are all over, it’s time to say goodbye to a few other shows for the season, as Better Call Saul, Fargo and Silicon Valley all air season finale episodes this week. Premieres include Netflix’s women’s wrestling series GLOW, season two of Preacher and Queen Sugar and another new series in The Mist on Spike TV. Gamers have a slew of new options too, as the Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood and Dead Rising 4 – Super Ultra Dead Mini Golf expansions arrive, while sports fans can tune-in to the NBA Draft. On Blu-ray, there’s Life, which is available in Ultra HD, plus a new complete boxed set for anime series The Big O. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Life (4K)
• The Big O: Complete Collection
• Joe Versus the Volcano
• The Naked Gun: Trilogy collection
• Lawnmower Man
• Car Wash
• Marseille Trilogy (Criterion)
• A Million Ways to Die
• Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PS4, PC)
• Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court (PC)
• Dungeon Defenders II (Xbox One, PS4)
• MXGP3 (PS4, Xbox One)
• Dead Rising 4 – Super Ultra Dead Mini Golf DLC (Xbox One, PC)
• Nex Machina (PS4, PC)
• Dead By Daylight (Xbox One, PS4)
• Cave Story (Switch)
• God Wars: Future Past (PS4)
• Mighty No.9 (Xbox 360)
• Broken Age (Xbox One)
• Get Even (PS4, PC)
• Micro Machines World Series (PS4, Xbox One)
• Chess Ultra (Xbox One)

Monday

• American Ninja Warrior, NBC, 8PM
• So You Think You Can Dance?, Fox, 8PM
• Shadowhunters, Freeform, 8PM
• Superhuman, Fox, 9PM
• Women Who Kill, A&E, 9PM
• Stitchers, Freeform, 9PM
• Whose Line is it Anyway?, CW, 9PM
• The Twins, Freeform, 9PM
• Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge, NBC, 10PM
• #Murder, TV One, 10PM
• Better Call Saul (season finale), AMC, 10PM
• American Dad, TBS, 10PM
• Better Call Saul: Talking Saul, AMC, 11PM
• The Therapist, Viceland, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Tuesday

• Casual, Hulu, 3AM
• Amar Akbar & Tony, Netflix, 3AM
• Rory Scovel Tries Stand-up for the First Time, Netflix, 3AM
• America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
• Downward Dog, ABC, 8PM
• Pretty Little Liars, Freeform, 8PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9PM
• The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros, MTV, 9PM
• Famous in Love, Freeform, 9PM
• Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
• iZombie, CW, 9PM
• Switched at Birth, Freeform, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Queen Sugar (season premiere), OWN, 10PM
• Wrecked (season premiere), TBS, 10PM
• Fear Factor, MTV, 10PM
• Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
• World of Dance, NBC, 10PM
• Team Ninja Warrior, USA, 10PM
• The Jim Jefferies Show, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
• Desus and Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• Little Big Shots (series premiere), NBC, 8PM
• Straight/Curve, Epix, 8PM
• Dirty Dancing, ABC, 8PM
• Kingdom, DirecTV Audience, 8PM
• Big Star Little Star, USA, 9PM
• The F Word with Gordon Ramsey, Fox, 9PM
• The Magicians, Syfy, 9PM
• Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
• Queen Sugar, Own, 10PM
• Fargo (season finale), FX, 10PM
• Blood Drive, Syfy, 10PM
• To Tell the Truth (summer premiere), ABC, 10PM
• Lip Sync Battle (season premiere), Spike TV, 10PM
• The Ultimate Fighter, FS1, 10PM
• Nobodies (season finale), TV Land, 10PM
• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS, 10:30PM
• Bong Appetit (season finale), Viceland, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM
• The New Classroom, Viceland, 12AM

Thursday

• NBA Draft 2017, ESPN, 7PM
• Beat Shazam, Fox, 8PM
• Boy Band (series premiere), ABC, 8PM
• Hollywood Game Night (season premiere), NBC, 8PM
• The Wall (season premiere), NBC, 9PM
• The Tunnel, PBS, 9PM
• Love Connection, Fox, 9PM
• King of the Road, Viceland, 9PM
• The Mist (series premiere), Spike TV, 10PM
• The Night Shift (season premiere), NBC, 10PM
• The Gong Show (series premiere), ABC, 10PM
• Queen of the South, USA, 10PM
• Party Legends, Viceland, 10PM
• American Boyband, Viceland, 10:30PM
• Comedy Knockout, TruTV, 11PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• GLOW (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Free Rein (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, Netflix, 3AM
• You Get Me, Netflix, 3AM
• Vice, HBO, 7:30PM
• Dark Matter, Syfy, 8PM
• The Originals (season finale), CW, 8PM
• Wynonna Earp, Syfy, 10PM
• Tanked, Animal Planet, 10PM
• Playing House (season premiere), USA, 11PM

Saturday

• Nitro Circus, NBC, 8PM
• Doctor Who, BBC America, 9PM
• Turn, AMC, 9PM
• In an Instant, ABC, 9PM
• Orphan Black, BBC America, 10PM

Sunday

• F1 Azerbaijan GP, NBC Sports Network, 9AM
• Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, 8PM
• 2017 BET Awards, 8PM
• Celebrity Family Feud, ABC, 8PM
• Bob’s Burgers, Fox, 8:30PM
• Power (season premiere), Starz, 9PM
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (season finale), CNN, 9PM
• Claws, TNT, 9PM
• Grantchester, PBS, 9PM
• American Grit, Fox, 9PM
• Fear the Walking Dead, AMC, 9PM
• Steve Harvey’s Funderdome, ABC, 9PM
• Twin Peaks, Showtime, 9PM
• Preacher (season premiere), AMC, 10PM
• $100,000 Pyramid, ABC, 10PM
• Naked & Afraid XL, Discovery, 10PM
• Unsung, TV One, 10PM
• Silicon Valley (season finale), HBO, 10PM
• United Shades of America (season finale), CNN, 10PM
• Prime Suspect (series premiere), PBS, 10PM
• Veep, HBO, 10:30PM
• Kevin Hart Presents, Comedy Central, 11PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM
• Legends of Chamberlain Heights, Comedy Central, 11:30PM

(All times listed are ET)

Researchers can now desalinate seawater with the power of the Sun

One of the oldest means of extracting potable liquid from seawater involves distillation, basically boiling the water into steam and then cooling the purified vapor in condensation tubes. Problem is, this method is incredibly power intensive with nearly half of the input energy going towards just boiling the water. But, a team of researchers from Rice University have developed a new technique that not only drastically reduces the amount of energy needed but can decouple the process from the power grid altogether.

The research was carried out at the federally funded Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) at Rice University. Since its formation in 2015, NEWT has worked to develop a technology called “nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation”, or NESMD. In this method, flows of hot and cold water are separated by a thin membrane. Water vapor is drawn across that membrane from hot side to cold, straining out the salt. This uses much less energy than distillation since the water only needs to be hot, not boiled.

To further improve the system’s efficiency, researchers at NEWT combined commercially available membranes with nanoparticles that convert light into heat. Doing so means that the membrane itself heats up, so you don’t need a steady supply of hot water, just sunlight.

And since you don’t need a bunch of energy to heat water, the power requirements drop to little more than running a pump to help push the fluid through the process. As such, the entire modular system can run on a couple of solar panels.

During their tests, the research team found that like molten salt power arrays, their device’s efficiency multiplied if the sunlight was concentrated. “The intensity got up 17.5 kilowatts per meter squared when a lens was used to concentrate sunlight by 25 times,” Rice University researcher Qilin Li, said in a statement, “and the water production increased to about 6 liters per meter squared per hour.”

And since the system is modular, the thinking is that places like remote communities, offshore oil rigs and disaster relief sites would be able to figure out their hourly water consumption rates and install exactly the desalination capacity necessary. This same technology could just as easily replace the current membrane distillation technology at more than 18,000 water purification plants worldwide.

“Direct solar desalination could be a game changer for some of the estimated 1 billion people who lack access to clean drinking water,” . “This off-grid technology is capable of providing sufficient clean water for family use in a compact footprint, and it can be scaled up to provide water for larger communities.”

Source: Rice University