Red’s first phone has a holographic display and a price tag worthy of the brand

Why it matters to you

The display tech featured in Red’s first phone may be otherworldly and wildly expensive, but we could see it trickle down to mainstream devices in the future.

Professional digital imaging firm Red is mostly known for absurdly expensive film cameras, but now it has turned it attention to a different kind of product. The company has unveiled the Hydrogen One, an Android-powered smartphone that is unlike any other we’ve seen.

The party piece here is the screen. Red calls it a “professional hydrogen holographic display,” and what it does is enable on-the-fly switching between 2D content, stereoscopic 3D content, and holographic Red Hydrogen 4-View content. While we’re not exactly sure what that last one could possibly look like in action, the point is that the Hydrogen One is able to deliver all these kinds of media formats without the need for glasses or any additional accessories. It’s kind of like the Nintendo 3DS in that way, but with a much more advanced screen.

It’s for this reason that the company calls the device “the world’s first holographic media machine,” rather than simply a smartphone. The display itself is 5.7 inches in size, and Red has not stated the resolution of the display, nor the underlying tech — be it LCD, OLED as the upcoming iPhone is rumored to feature, or something perhaps completely different. We’ve reached out to Red for clarification.

But there’s more that differentiates the Hydrogen One than just the screen alone. Red has fitted its first phone with a proprietary audio algorithm that it says converts ordinary stereo into multidimensional sound. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to require custom accessories hardware either, meaning ordinary headphones will still be able to provide the depth effect.

Finally, Red says the device allows for a certain degree of modularity as well, to support future attachments for shooting higher quality video, still images, and holographic content. Strangely however, the press release doesn’t elaborate as to the on-board imaging tech.

We can see the bezeled camera housing in the lone promotional image we have of the device, but as for other details — megapixels, aperture, sensor size, whether there’s a dual-camera system in play, and so on — there’s no information provided. However, Red does mention a specialized app and content hub called the Red Channel where users can download and upload holographic content, indicating you should be able to record such video out of the box.

There are still many more details about the Hydrogen One that have yet to be confirmed. We don’t know what processor is powering this phone for example, or how much memory it’s packing. We can see a USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack, but as for everything else, lots of questions remain. We’ll update this article as we hear more.

We do, however, know the price — and it appears all that next-generation media doesn’t come cheap. The Hydrogen One can currently be pre-ordered in two configurations: an aluminum model for $1,200, and a titanium one for a whopping $1,600.

Red says that pricing is also subject to change, as are the design and specs before the phone launches sometime in the first quarter of 2018. The company is very clear that it can’t guarantee those prices upon the release date; once the pre-order run is all spoken for, the Hydrogen One could end up being even more expensive.

What’s inside the AtariBox? We pieced together all the clues

During E3 2017, Atari posted an interesting 21-second teaser called AtariBox. In short visual stabs, it shows what appears to be a redesigned Atari 2600 console. Atari CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed that the AtariBox was indeed real, and that the company was back in the hardware business.

Naturally, that generated a lot of buzz. But before you get too excited at Atari’s possible return to the console wars, you should consider where the company is now, where it plans to go, and what Fred Chesnais has publicly stated since he rescued the company from bankruptcy protection in 2013. What you’ll find is that a full-fledged console likely isn’t on the Atari menu.

Atari, the software company

Today, Atari makes its money as a game publisher. It serves up games for Android and iOS such as RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, Atari Vault, Centipede: Origins, and many more. The company also provides an “online arcade” where fans can play Flash-based versions of Centipede, Lunar Lander, Missile Command, Pong, Yars’ Revenge, and more, within a web browser.

Atari also serves up older console and PC games such as Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, Blood, and the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. Atari is even rebooting its popular franchises, publishing reimagined versions of Asteroids, Yars’ Revenge, and Haunted House.

Classic games optimized by Atari for a game-optimized smartwatch doesn’t seem far-fetched at all.

Atari does make money from games, and it even generates cash with lucrative licensing of its brand to Hollywood. Yet that doesn’t mean Atari is able to make the huge investment required to compete with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft often lose money with each console sold, and make up for that loss through software sales. Based on Atari’s current software portfolio, it doesn’t appear to have the cash to do that.

Chesnais said, in 2015, that the company has no plans to build a new console. Instead, Chesnais indicated his interest in producing an Atari-branded smartwatch capable of playing games. That’s totally feasible, as smartwatches on the market today can play clones of Asteroids, Galaxia, Brick Breaker, and Pong. Classic games optimized by Atari for a game-optimized smartwatch doesn’t seem far-fetched at all.

What would a new Atari look like?

What, then, is the AtariBox? In 2014, Chesnais said that Atari was contemplating a replica of the Atari 2600. The comment seemingly points to a device like what Nintendo produced during the 2016 holiday season — the NES Classic Edition console. It’s a miniature version of Nintendo’s very first home console packed with 30 games, HDMI connectivity, and the ability to save progress.

The NES Classic Edition had classic games you can’t purchase to play on other hardware, however. That’s not the case for Atari, which has frequently made its classics available on various platforms, so if the company is indeed taking that route, it will need something to get gamers excited. One possibility is an AtariBox that plays not just Atari 2600 games, but also made for the 5200, 7800, and Jaguar consoles — and maybe even the Atari Lynx handheld system, too.

Chesnais’ said in an interview that AtariBox will rely on PC technology, which is what started the excitement. That’s a very vague description, and could be a play on words to generate buzz. Both Microsoft and Sony ditched proprietary processors in their latest consoles, and went with AMD-based processor and graphics technology used in PCs for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.

To some degree, Nintendo’s Switch console is based on PC technology, too. Unlike the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the Switch is based on a variant of a mobile all-in-one “Tegra” chip designed by PC graphics card provider Nvidia. It contains processor cores based on the ARM mobile CPU architecture, which mainly powers smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. But Nvidia’s chip also includes graphics cores based on Nvidia’s “Maxwell” design for PC-based graphics cards. In a sense, then, it could be called “PC technology.”

If Atari chose to rely on Nvidia’s Tegra mobile chip, then the AtariBox could be a themed, Atari-branded variant of the Shield TV set-top-box. But right now, Atari’s Android-based portfolio on Google Play is limited to six games including Atari Greatest Hits, Centipede Origins, and RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic. A lot of work might be involved on porting the games to Android-compatible versions. And an Android TV-based console feels unlikely given how the highly-anticipated Ouya’s success panned out.

Another unlikely route for Atari is a branded PC. The video teased by Atari hints at 2600-like surfaces that could be applied to a console-shaped PC like Dell’s Alienware Alpha, which has a starting price of $550. The AtariBox could even be a themed, branded miniature PC from Zotac or Gigabyte. After all, the company does license out its brand. We don’t think that’d be a great idea, however. Even Valve Software’s own highly-popular Steam brand had difficulty selling PC gaming machines under the company’s Steam Machine initiative. Atari wouldn’t stand a chance.

If the AtariBox isn’t an Xbox One competitor, an Android-based set-top-box, or a branded desktop PC, what is it? Our best guess is a device capable of PC-based software emulation.

PC technology, retro fun

Right now, all signs seemingly point to an Atari 2600 revamp with digital output, internal storage, and pre-installed Atari 2600 games. But if the AtariBox isn’t a straight-up copycat of Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition and SNES Classic Edition consoles, we could be looking at a device capable of playing the company’s PC games along with its limited Android library through emulation. The software would presumably be sold and maintained through a built-in Atari Play marketplace.

Right now, all signs seemingly point to an Atari 2600 revamp with digital output.

But that PC-based design would also mean the device would need to rely on a version of the free, open-source Linux operating system to keep the overall console cost down. However, based on what’s available through Steam right now, only a dozen Atari-published titles are compatible with the Linux platform.

What about input? If the AtariBox is indeed a remake of the 2600 model, expect identical joysticks connecting through a USB port instead of the previous 9-pin input. Of course, Atari could opt to throw in standard gamepads instead, but that would break the retro feel. Having full USB ports would mean gamers could purchase third-party controllers that can be used both on the AtariBox and PCs.

Despite all the recent buzz, Chesnais said Atari was still working on the design, so we may not see what Atari is up to for quite a while… if at all. Until then, we can only speculate that the AtariBox is a small Atari 2600 clone with updated components. Frankly, the fact so many of potential AtariBox ideas lead to a dead end, makes us think the concept isn’t as promising as it seems – until we learn more details, at least.

Switching to the ‘Un-carrier?’ Here’s a breakdown of T-Mobile’s plans

T-Mobile is the most rebellious of the four big carriers in the United States, with its “Un-carrier” moves being the ones that truly shake up the industry. Over the past few years, T-Mobile has killed two-year contracts, ended data overages, and opened up a lot of cool features to its customers. Its service is still a bit spotty in many parts of rural America, but its urban coverage can’t be beat. If you live in an area that gets T-Mobile service, you’ll definitely want to check out the Un-carrier’s plans.

That said, we’ve broken down each of T-Mobile’s plans to help you better understand the good and the bad hidden within. Here are a few main points to get you started.

• T-Mobile really has only one plan, whether you’re looking for a single-line or a family option. The only differences apply to it’s Plus and Plus International add-ons.
• It’s standard plan only offers standard definition when it comes to video streaming, though, lately, it has been running promotions to include HD streaming at no additional cost.
• The T-Mobile One Plus International plan is the best plan out there for overseas travelers, by far.
• Plans are “all-in,” meaning taxes and fees are baked into the cost of the plan.
• T-Mobile Tuesdays is a nice — albeit, slightly gimmicky — perk, given you get free or discounted stuff on a weekly basis, like $15 Lyft credits.

T-Mobile One Unlimited Plan

 People
 Line cost
 Data
 Total
1
 $70
 Unlimited
 $70
2
 $70 + $50
 Unlimited
 $120
3
 $70 + $50 +$20
 Unlimited
 $140
4
 $70 + $50 + $40 +$20
 Unlimited
 $160
5
 $70 + $50 + $40 + $20 +$20
 Unlimited
 $180

Editor’s note: This is non-promotional pricing — your mileage may vary. For instance, as of this writing, a two-line plan was $100 per month.

The unlimited plan is best for families of four or more. It’s also great for individuals who are data hogs. If you don’t have internet at home and rely on your phone plan for internet access, the unlimited plan is also a great choice. However, it is expensive for individuals and small families. T-Mobile does offer a lot of perks to make this plan worth your while, though.

Recommendations:

• The T-Mobile One plan is best for families of three or more people because you get unlimited data for a good price.
• Most people really don’t need to pay for the high-resolution video or tethering add-ons on a data connection, so don’t do it.
• T-Mobile One is also great for people who travel because you get unlimited text and 3G data in more than 100 countries.

The perks of T-Mobile One

• Unlimited texting and 3G/2G data in more than 100 countries worldwide. Calls are 20 cents a minute.
• Unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico and Canada.
• Unlimited text and an hour of Gogo internet access on select flights.
• The T-Mobile Tuesdays app, which gives you free things and discounts on stuff every Tuesday.

The downsides of T-Mobile One

• Videos stream at a lower, 480p resolution when on a data connection. If you want HD video, you’ll have to pay an extra $10 a month per line for the One Plus plan, but watch for occasional promotions.
• The tethering between your phone and other devices is limited to 3G speeds. You’ll have to upgrade to the One Plus International plan for 4G LTE tethering.
• If you surpass 26GB of 4G LTE data, your speeds will be throttled to 2G.
• You must sign up for Auto Pay on your bills, or T-Mobile will charge an extra $5 per line each month.

The One Plus plan includes unlimited tethering with the first 10GB of data used at full 4G LTE speeds, unlimited high-speed data in more than 140 countries, unlimited HD streaming, and unlimited Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi. It adds $10 per line (formerly $5 per month before the end of a promotional period in July 2017) to the cost of your plan, however. Here’s what it’d look like if you added it to every line.

 People
 Line cost
 Data
One Plus
 Total
1
 $70
 Unlimited
$10
 $75
2
 $70 + $50
 Unlimited
$10 x 2
 $130
3
 $70 + $50 +$20
 Unlimited
$10 x 3
 $155
4
 $70 + $50 + $20 +$20
 Unlimited
$10 x 4
 $180
5
 $70 + $50 + $20 + $20 +$20
 Unlimited
$10 x 5
 $205

Like we said, the T-Mobile One Plus International plan is the best international plan we’ve seen for overseas travelers. You gain unlimited calling to landline numbers in over 70 countries, and mobile lines in more than 30, and there are no limits on 4G LTE tethering. There’s one downside, though: It’s $25 per month. Our recommendation is that you add this only to the lines that absolutely need it. Otherwise, your five-line plan will balloon to more than $300 per month.

Let’s recap:

The perks that come with all T-Mobile plans:

• Mobile without Borders: T-Mobile users get unlimited talk, text, and data in Canada and Mexico, as well as the United States. Unlimited text and data at lower speeds is also available in nearly 150 countries worldwide, though, calls cost 20 cents per minute unless you’re on the T-Mobile One Plus International plan.
• T-Mobile Tuesdays: Download this iOS and Android app to get free deals every Tuesday, like $15 in Lyft credit or a Frosty from Wendy’s.
• No overages on data.

The downsides of all T-Mobile plans:

• Spotty coverage in rural areas, however, there has been significant improvement in the last year.
• Once you surpass 26GB of data, you may be throttled.

Ava DuVernay’s Central Park Five series is headed to Netflix

Ava DuVernay, the director and co-writer of Selma and director of the upcoming A Wrinkle in Time, is teaming up with Netflix for a limited series about the Central Park Five case. DuVernay, who worked with Netflix on her Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, will write and direct the five-episode series.

In 1989, five teenagers from Harlem were accused and convicted of attacking and raping a jogger in Central Park. After spending years in prison, the five men were released when DNA evidence proved they weren’t the culprits. “The story of the men known as the Central Park Five has riveted me for more than two decades. In their journey, we witness five innocent young men of color who were met with injustice at every turn — from coerced confessions to unjust incarceration to public calls for their execution by the man who would go on to be the president of the United States,” DuVernay said in a statement. Cindy Holland, Netflix’s VP of Original Content, said, “After powerfully reframing the public conversation about criminality and injustice in 13th, Ava now turns a new lens to a case that exposes deep flaws in our criminal justice system.”

The series’ timeframe will span from when the teenagers were first questioned in 1989 to their exoneration and settlement with New York City in 2014. Each episode will focus on one of the five teenagers and it’s slated for release in 2019.

Source: Variety

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2: News and rumors

Why it matters to you

Xiaomi was ahead of the curve in terms of smartphone design with the Mi Mix. The Mi Mix 2 could follow suit and set a new standard.

Xiaomi’s Mi Mix smartphone is just a taste of what’s to come in smartphone design — a large, gorgeous display with next to no bezels. Even though the Mi Mix only came out last fall, Xiaomi may already be working on a successor.

There is not a lot of information to go on just yet, but here is everything we think we know about the Mi Mix 2.

Specs

India Today

Much about Xiamoi’s upcoming flagship remains a mystery, but we can glean hints from the benchmarks that have leaked so far.

In early July, India Today spotted a Mi Mix 2 unit on benchmarking website GFXBench with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 6.4-inch IPS LCD display. It sports a 5-megapixel selfie camera embedded in the bottom, and runs an Android 7.1.1 Nougat-based operating system.

Design

The Xiaomi Mi Mix made headlines for one reason — the huge display that covered almost the entire front of the phone. Recent GIFs that leaked on the Weibo network and were shared by XiaomiToday indicate the company is looking to cover even more surface area with the Mi Mix 2.

The animations depict a phone that is virtually bezel-free on the top and sides, with an extremely thin bottom bezel. XiaomiToday reports the second-generation Mi Mix will continue the ceramic construction of the original, though this time the display will comprise 93 percent of the front of the device, up from 90 percent in the previous model. The screen is also expected to employ AMOLED technology. Bear in mind these are only renderings — not shots of an actual device — and we cannot verify their authenticity.

Moving to the back, the leak suggests dual cameras above a rear fingerprint sensor, the latter of which XiaomiToday says will utilize the same ultrasonic module found in Xiaomi’s Mi 5s.

A report from GizmoChina earlier in March corroborates XiaomiToday’s 93 percent screen-to-bezel-ratio claim, as well as the AMOLED display rumor — though GizmoChina said the panel would be curved. The low quality of the GIFs makes it impossible to tell if there’s any curve along the sides of the model’s screen.

What made the Mi Mix unique — apart from nearly nonexistent bezels — was the use of Elliptic Labs’ ultrasound technology to replace the proximity sensor on the front of the screen. This allowed for the phone’s screen to go black during a call when the device was lifted up to the ear — an action usually performed by the proximity sensor.

Using ultrasound technology allowed Xiaomi to eliminate the bezel on the top of the device. It’s highly likely we’ll see this again, but perhaps the company will take it a step further and attempt to remove the bottom bezel as well.

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said in a Weibo update that he is working again with Philippe Starck, the French designer that helped design the Mi Mix. From rough translations, there seem to be no specific mention of the Mi Mix 2, but Jun said the two are looking to see how they can make “these exciting innovations [a] reality.” Jun posted a picture of the two standing in front of a Mi Mix advertisement.

It seems likely that Jun is referring to the second-generation Mi Mix, though we cannot confirm this.

Update: Added in leaked benchmarks which appear to show the Mi Mix 2’s processor and screen size. 

Titan’s lakes are calm and might be perfect for probing

Why it matters to you

Titan is one of our best bets for finding life off Earth and this new study suggests it would offer a probe a relatively smooth landing.

Titan is a special place. It’s the biggest of Saturn’s 62 moons, it’s the only one with a dense atmosphere, and — other than Earth — it’s the only object in space where scientists have found clear evidence of liquid lakes and seas.

Oh and, maybe above all else, Titan is thought to be rich in complex organic compounds, making it a top prospect in the search for extraterrestrial life.

“Titan is a fascinating real-scale laboratory for those interested into the mechanisms that lead to the apparition of life,” Cyril Grima, a geophysical researcher at the University of Texas, told Digital Trends. “It is full of organic molecules that are synthesized into more complex macromolecules, some of which are known to be building blocks for life as we can observe on Earth.”

NASA and ESA’s Cassini–Huygens probe arrived at Titan back in 2004 and revealed massive lakes of liquid methane. Just over a decade later, NASA toyed with the idea of sending a submarine to the moon to study its depths.

That idea looks even more tempting now that Grima and his team have published a study showing that some of Titan’s seas are almost completely calm.

“There is the science motivation to confirm the Titan’s seas are very flat as suggested by previous studies,” Grima said. “That way it could help to improve climate models and also to bring additional information for helping current concepts in their design for Titan’s landers.”

Grima and his team focused on measuring wave-height on Titan’s three largest bodies of water: Punga mare, Ligeia Mare, and Kraken Mare, where NASA proposed to send the submarine probe. The researchers analyzed data that was collected by Cassini during the early summer and found that waves were never higher than four inches and never longer than eight inches. They were often under a half inch high.

“So it tends to show that small waves are the most common during this season,” Grima said. This was a surprise. The researchers expected this to be the windiest time of the year, so they anticipated to spot some bigger waves.

There are some caveats, Grima admits: “It is important to note that our measurement technique, together with the instrument capabilities, is sensitive to the global … waves that populate the seas. So we cannot rule out that smaller patches of higher waves, not sustained over long period of time, might exist.”

Either way, the study suggests Titan might welcome a probe with a relatively gentle landing, into a sea whose depths could be teeming with life.

Could we stream HD video across the galaxy? This astrophysicist thinks so

Why it matters to you

It may be ambitious, but this proposal could give us live HD video streaming from Alpha Centauri. Well, kind of live.

Last year, the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner committed to spending $100 million on “Breakthrough Starshot,” a massive engineering project with the intention of developing a fleet of miniature spacecraft capable of travelling to our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri — some 20 to 30 years away from Earth travelling at less than a quarter the speed of light.

One of the most tantalizing aspects of travelling to Alpha Centauri is investigating its Proxima Centauri B exoplanet, which possesses an Earth-like mass and orbits within the system’s habitable zone — meaning that it has the potential to harbor life. So far, so good.

The problem is getting the data back from the lightweight solar sail that Breakthrough Starshot aims to send. Radio, for instance, is impossible. An independent astrophysicist named Michael Hippke thinks he has a solution, however — and he’s published a couple of papers online to explain what it might entail. The TLDR version? It involves using an effect called gravitational lensing and the sun’s gravity to amplify signals from the probe for some sweet interstellar space streaming.

“In the first paper of my series, I show that we can communicate with such a probe near Proxima at low data rates, in the vicinity of bits per second, when using large Earth-based telescopes,” Hippke told Digital Trends. “This allows for the transfer of a few images over the course of months, but nothing more. In the second paper, I analyze how to improve the data rate. This can be done using our sun as a telescope. The gravitational field bends the light and a telescope can be put in its focus to collect the signal photons. This allows for much higher data rates.”

According to Hippke’s calculations, the gravitational lens telescope could increase data rate by a factor of one million. That would mean data transfer rates sufficient for live HD video streaming. (“Although live is relative,” he points out. “The speed of light still applies, and it takes the photons 4 years for the journey.)

The coolest part of Hippke’s suggestion is that it uses a lot of existing technology — although it still requires the use of a spacecraft being launched further into space than any we’ve launched before.

“The receiver itself it off-the-shelf established technology,” he said. “A telescope like the Hubble Space Telescope would be totally sufficient in terms of aperture and quality. It would need to be equipped with a coronagraph, also standard technology, and a fast photon detector. The difficult part is to bring the device, which would be 1 to 2 meters, to to a distance of 600 astronomical units — roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun — which takes many decades with classical rockets. However, there are some NASA studies that show options for gravitational swing-bys and high-velocity rockets to make it possible in 30-50 years.”

Plus, there’s that tiny matter of getting a probe near to Proxima in order to send us the data in the first place, of course!

Georgia Tech’s 3D-printed heart valve models could be a genuine lifesaver

Why it matters to you

3D-printing lets surgeons pick the right heart valve for surgery, helping avoid potentially fatal leakage.

Long-term, the dream of 3D-printed objects is to use additive manufacturing to be able to bioprint entire functional organs for use in transplant surgeries.

While we are not at that point just yet, that does not mean there is not some massively exciting work happening in the field, however. The latest example? Research carried out at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Piedmont Heart Institute in Atlanta, where investigators have created 3D-printed heart valves, designed for use in the planning of lifesaving surgeries.

“The Georgia Tech and Piedmont Heart Institute team has developed an integrated materials design and 3D-printing technique for making heart valves that can closely mimic human heart valve functions,” Georgia Tech engineering professor Chuck Zhang told Digital Trends. “These 3D-printed valves can be used by doctors or surgeons for surgery planning, such as selecting the most matching prosthetic valve, and determining the location of the stent to be inserted in the aortic valve in a transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR) procedure.”

As with other applications of 3D printing, the big advantage of the technology here is the high level of customization it offers. Replacement valves which don’t fit properly can cause leakage-related complications, potentially resulting in the death of the patient. By creating 3D-printed models from CT scans of patients’ hearts, cardiologists will be able to test valve models for fit prior to surgery taking place.

So far, the researchers have done in vitro testing of the technology retrospectively on 18 patients. Although these patients had received previous heart valve replacements, the researchers were able to manufacture 3D-printed valves and study them to see how well they functioned in test conditions. The study showed that the 3D-printed valves were able to predict not only the occurrence of post-TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) paravalvular leaks, but also its location and severity.

“The next step is to further refine the technique and perform more tests,” Zhang said. “We also plan to work with companies to commercialize this technique so that it can be available for surgeons to use in related operations in the near future.”

The work is described in a paper published in the journal ACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.

Google Blocks makes it easy for anybody to create VR objects in 3D

Why it matters to you

You now have an easier way to create 3D objects for VR environments — all you needs is an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift headset.

Augmented and virtual reality continue to make meaningful strides in terms of the hardware that makes the experiences possible. At the same time, software and content need to continuously keep up or all of that hardware will go to waste — a fact that isn’t lost on companies like Google and Microsoft that are heavily invested in AR and VR technology.

Google has taken a particular approach to induce developers and creative professionals to create the tools and assets that can bring AR and VR worlds to life. Specifically, Google has focused in part on making it easier to create artwork and 3D objects for use in AR/VR environments and then sharing them with the world. Its newest offering is an app called Blocks, which is aimed at creating 3D assets in its most natural environment — that is, from within VR headsets themselves.

Blocks, as Road to VR reports, differs from many of the tools currently used to create the 3D objects that populate a VR environment. Those tools typically are created on traditional PCs using 2D displays, while Blocks follows Google’s earlier artist-focused Tilt Brush app in being utilized within the VR headset and environment itself. And like Tilt Brush, Blocks is intended to be easy enough to use for anyone with access to the right VR equipment.

Simply put, Blocks allows creative types to create simple 3D objects using their VR “hands,” with a selection of tools, shapes, and textures that can be applied to add some flair to each individual creation. The process is described as easy enough for non-technical users without significant artistic talent to use to create objects, which can then be exported to Google’s Blocks showcase for use by anyone who’s building a VR environment.

So far, Blocks works on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and it is completely free to use. The resulting objects can be utilized in other VR applications, including Tilt Brush and the Windows-based 3D Builder app. You can check out some creations now at the Blocks showcase, and create your own 3D objects by grabbing the Blocks app from Steam or the Oculus Store.

Amazon Prime Day Live Blog: All of the best deals in real-time

Prime Day 2017 is finally here, and the Thrifter team will be covering all 30 hours of it with you right here!

That’s right. Team Thrifter will be bringing you complete coverage of all things Prime Day right here, and we hope you’ll join us. Our live coverage of the fun will begin on July 10 at 7 p.m. EST. Amazon will have a mix of all-day and Lightning deals going on, and we don’t want you to miss out on any of them, so we’ve created this live blog to help everyone out. Lightning deals have been known to sell out in just minutes (sometimes less), so this is the quickest way to be alerted of these deals as they are happening!

Read more at Thrifter