It's the most golden hotel perk since gold-bar vending machines: gold iPads.
As if the Rolls Royce and helicopter services weren't enough, guests at Dubai's opulent Burj Al Arab now have access to gold-plated iPads.
The 24-karat tablets are engraved with the property's logo on the back, which also features a black Apple logo. Ironically enough, the hotel chain's slogan is "Stay different." … Read more
Fears of a death spiral for used games with the Xbox One may be a little premature.
A Microsoft spokesman confirmed to CNET that Microsoft will support used games with its new console, though it declined to provide much information at this time.
"We are designing Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games," the spokesman said. "We'll have more details to share later."
What we do know is that users have to install games from a disc onto the console's hard drive to access the information. Users can then play … Read more
The latest round of cutting-edge aerospace technology feels very Zen to me. Much like SpaceX's Grasshopper Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing vehicle, this Lockheed Martin F-35B jet is capable of vertical take-offs and landings and appears to hover in the air in a sort of meditative state that seems odd for a military fighter.
The first vertical take-off and landing test of the production model was successfully conducted earlier this month and captured in the official video below. … Read more
What's hotter -- the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4?
This year kicked off a new chapter in gaming history as Microsoft and Sony revealed their next-generation consoles, which are destined to rule living rooms (and hands) around the world. Of course, Nintendo also had its fun with the Wii U, but hard-core gamers don't seem to really be jumping on the device.… Read more
The debate around video game violence and whether it leads to actual violence has once again come to the fore this year since the Obama administration asked for funding to study the matter. A study by researchers at the University of Connecticut isn't trying to answer that particular thorny question, but it has uncovered a noteworthy component to the level of aggression gamers display when playing.
The study monitored 148 participants as they played Quake 3 Revolution on PlayStation 2. They battled opponents that either looked closely human or characters that looked like inhuman monsters. The gamers were surveyed afterward. The study found that fighting human targets increased both verbal aggression and aggressive thoughts. The research was just published in the journal Mass Communication and Society.… Read more
Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled its newest gaming console, the Xbox One, with a slew of new capabilities. But one thing it won't do is play Xbox 360 games.
Because the new gaming system has a different chip architecture -- Advanced Micro Devices' x86 instead of IBM's PowerPC -- the Xbox One won't have native compatibility with 360 games. It's unclear at this time whether Microsoft will create a solution for that, such as making some of the more popular games compatible through emulation or allowing users to access older titles through a cloud-streaming system. But it … Read more
"Star Trek" food replicators will always be the holy grail of space-snack technology, but we could be edging a step closer to the dream thanks to the work of mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor with Systems and Materials Research in Austin, Texas.
Systems and Materials Research recently received a $125,000 grant from NASA to make a pizza. OK, it's a little more complicated than that. Contractor already created a proof-of-concept printer that can print chocolate onto a cookie. His next goal is to print out dough and cook it while printing out sauce and toppings.… Read more
Biomedical engineers are unveiling a new type of fabric that, much like human skin, can turn excess sweat into droplets that simply fall away on their own accord.
"We intentionally did not use any fancy microfabrication techniques so it is compatible with the textile manufacturing process and very easy to scale up," said Siyuan Xing in a school news release. Xing is the lead biomedical engineering student on the project at the University of California, Davis.
An article in the journal Lab on a Chip describes the fabric's microfluidic platform. Multiple woven threads suck droplets of water … Read more
Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, said the company wanted to design and build the "ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system."
The Xbox One will be available around the world later this year.
The Xbox One includes games, TV, movies, music, the Web, and apps. It has Skype and live TV capabilities, as well as voice recognition to switch between programs, new gesture recognition, and the ability to operate multiple programs at the same time. And users make group video calls … Read more
Step aside, home photo printer! The age of the 3D printer is just beginning. But then what are you supposed to do with all those digital photos sitting on your hard drive?
Well, thanks to Amanda Ghassaei of Instructables -- who showed us how to make a 3D-printed record -- you can try printing them in 3D. Using an Objet500 Connex 3D printer that prints at 600dpi, along with ModelBuilder library and the Processing open-source programming language, Ghassaei converted her photographs into a printable topography.
How do they work?… Read more
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