Geek News

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is Now Available on Steam! A true, full-length open-world game for VR has arrived from Bethesda Game Studios. Skyrim VR reimagines the complete epic fantasy masterpiece with an unparalleled sense of scale, depth, and immersion. Skyrim VR also includes all official add-ons. via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2pYmuEs"

Reddit has redesigned its website and the changes begin rolling out today, marking the first time in a decade that the social media network has altered its interface. One percent of users will see the new design today, and over the course of the next few months, the design will come to all Reddit users and lurkers, as Wired reports . As of now, those who see the change can still switch back to the old Reddit. The new Reddit design replaces the navigation bar with a menu on the left corner, which resembles a lot of trendy website templates available on Squarespace, Wix, or Tumblr. The menu opens up to display links to feeds, subreddits you follow, and user profiles. Users will be able to choose to view Reddit in three modes: “classic view”... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2q4Yf7Z"

Space When the stars align, you can zoom way in. When looking back into the deep recesses of the universe, even huge objects like planets, stars, and galaxies can appear small. Magnification can help, but how do you… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2Ecm4j6"

Snapchat aired its first-ever TV ad this past weekend during the NCAA’s Final Four, and it appears to have set its sights on a new audience: your parents. The ad bills Snapchat as “a camera, where how you feel matters more than how you look,” while painting it as an easy way to take photos of messy babies and put dog ears on grandma. But by framing itself as another milquetoast social app designed for flaunting idyllic vacations and family reunions, the ad completely ignores what makes Snapchat appealing in the first place. Those highly curated shots are already going up on Instagram Stories. Snapchat is the place where you trade dumb jokes with your friends, non-essential thoughts, or show off the trashy nights you don’t want preserved... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2H4C6yu"

Valve has gone ahead and quietly hidden a link to its Steam Machines webpage from the Steam store itself, a move indicative of the ill-fated project to push a console-like transition for gaming PCs in the living room. The move, noticed by PC Gamer today, doesn’t mean Steam Machines can no longer be purchased. You can still find the live link here , and you can even purchase the recommended Alienware Alpha Steam Machine from Dell if so choose, as well as the Valve-designed SteamOS controller over on Amazon . But the “hardware” tab on Steam now only shows the Steam Controller, the HTC Vive headset, and Valve’s game streaming service Steam Link. It’s clear Steam Machines are no longer a priority for Valve, which couldn’t overcome the product... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2uJDR1H"

The dating app Grindr has been sharing data on whether its users have HIV with two outside companies, according to BuzzFeed and the Norwegian research nonprofit SINTEF . Grindr users — which include gay, bi, trans, and queer people — can indicate on their profile whether they are HIV positive or negative, when is the last time they got tested, and whether they’re taking HIV treatment or the HIV-preventing pill PrEP. But the app has not been keeping this info private: Grindr has been sharing people’s HIV statuses and test dates with two companies that help optimize the app, called Apptimize and Localytics, BuzzFeed reports . Because the HIV info is shared along with GPS data, phone IDs, and email addresses, it makes it possible to link... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2Jff34E"

Samsung’s latest additions to its line of laptops include the new Notebook 3 and Notebook 5 , cheaper variants of the existing Notebook 7 Spin and Notebook 9 models. The company hasn’t released pricing for the devices yet. However, we can expect them to come in under the $1,199.99 Notebook 9, the updated version of which launched last month , and likely lower in price than the recently updated 2-in-1 Notebook 7 Spin, which comes out later this year . The Notebook 3 will come with 14- or 15-inch versions, while the Notebook 5 will come in only a 15-inch model. Both will sport an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processor, while the Notebook 3 will have a less powerful Nvidia MX110 graphics card compared with the MX150 in the Notebook 5. We... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2JgBO8y"

If you’re seeing a 500 internal server error while visiting YouTube today, you’re not alone. The company confirmed via Twitter at 2:27PM ET that channel pages were down, though individual videos could still be watched. YouTube initially said that the error was only affecting some channels, but it’s since pulled a tweet with that clarification. There don’t seem to be any channels that are still up. Keep in mind this is only affecting main channel pages. All individual videos are still watchable and accessible. The errors started sometime before 2PM ET, and YouTube says it is working on correcting the issue. Seeing this 500 error message on YouTube? We're on it! pic.twitter.com/ArPDUDxUcp — Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) April 2, 2018 Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pZvqK0"

Software tycoon turned cryptocurrency enthusiast John McAfee recently revealed that he charges $105,000 for each tweet he sends out promoting digital coins or initial coin offerings (ICO). Last week, McAfee tweeted that his team had written up a guide on how his promotional tweets worked, and posted it to McAfee Crypto Team, an organization McAfee and his team put together to promote ICOs. “It’s self-aggrandizing and ego-stroking for us,” he wrote, “However, if you’re planning an ICO, trying to boost a coin, or want to shine a light on your latest project, you should overlook our swollen egos and see .” The link details how each tweet costs $105,000 but divided between his 810,000 followers, the cost per ‘investor’ is only $0.13. The... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IqkfSf"

Looks like it’s humans: 0, computers: 1 again. If you’re a big enough fan of ramen, maybe you can look at a photo of a tonkotsu bowl on Instagram and immediately recognize which restaurant it’s from. But computers have us beat, as they can now identify the exact shop a menu item came from, out of 41 seemingly identical bowls of ramen from the same restaurant franchise. Data scientist Kenji Doi did the delicious research, using Google’s AutoML Vision to classify every menu item from Ramen Jiro, a Tokyo-based chain of ramen shops. He gathered about 1,170 photos from each of the 41 shops, and fed the dataset of 48,000 ramen photos to the software. It took AutoML about 24 hours (18 minutes, in a less accurate Basic mode) to finish training... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pZIlvy"

Health The interstitium helps hold our organs together, but it might do more than that. In a report out last week in the journal Scientific Reports , doctors identified what they think could be a previously unrecognized organ. The structure is a network of… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2GQsTMM"

Malaysia passed a new law today that would punish citizens on social media or those working at a digital publication for spreading fake news with a 500,000 ringgit ($123,000) fine and a possible a prison sentence of up to six years. Led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Anti-Fake News bill passed in parliament today despite opponents who had criticized the bill for possibly impeding free speech and attempting to censor the prime minister’s involvement in a multibillion-dollar scandal. A draft of the bill had specified a prison sentence of up to 10 years as punishment, but the government toned it down to six in the finalized version, as reported by Reuters . Fake news cases will be handled by an independent court process. Violators could... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GpFC9w"

Waymo has been negotiating a partnership with Honda since late 2016, when the company was still housed within Google. But now those talks are nearing completion, according to Bloomberg . And rather than moving people, as was the focus of Waymo’s deals with Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover , the partnership with Honda will focus on delivering goods. Waymo CEO John Krafcik wouldn’t reveal much, but the implication is that a deal should be announced soon. A Waymo spokesperson declined comment. Krafcik said not to expect the new service to take the form of a “traditional car driven on roads.” His comments suggest Waymo is ready to try co-creating a vehicle from scratch with an automaker rather than modifying existing models, as it has done... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pZ7QxB"

Technology It was a good week for Apple news and a very bad week for Tesla. Be sure to check out the latest episode of the Last Week in Tech podcast! via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2pZ77MS"

Facebook today announced a new suite of avatar customization options for Spaces, the company’s virtual reality hangout app that lets you chat with friends and partake in group activities in a digital space. Prior to today, Spaces allowed you to customize an avatar using only a small handful of options for features like hair color and style or eye shape, and you couldn’t customize features like body shape at all. Now, there are hundreds of new options. Spaces remains in open beta on the Oculus platform, meaning it’s only available for Rift headsets. “Our goal is that everyone can represent themselves in VR in a way that feels natural, so we knew we could do better,” Facebook said in a statement. “In order to have a meaningful social... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2q0rxEG"

Acer’s thinnest all-in-one desktop, the Aspire S24, is available for purchase starting today. It’s a 23.8-inch all-in-one desktop powered by a Kaby Lake Intel Core i5 processor, an Intel graphics card, 12GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. The Aspire S24 also comes with a Qi charger and a free 30-day trial of Microsoft Office, which might be useful if you don’t already have the software. It runs Windows 10 and has a built-in speaker system built with Acer TrueHarmony and Dolby Audio Premium. It’s got slim bezels and a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio. The screen is full HD 1920 x 1080 and has a 16:9 aspect ratio. The inclusion of the Qi wireless charger should be useful even if your phone isn’t compatible. An adapter is relatively inexpensive,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GI97D5"

Last year , 9to5Mac reported that Google was working on a budget version of its Pixel smartphone, which wouldn’t be sold in the US. Between then and now, the Pixel 2 launched with no budget phone to be seen, but a new report out of India claims the device is coming this summer. The Economic Times reports that Google is working on a mid-range Pixel smartphone for “price-sensitive” markets, including India, that will be released in July or August, according to industry executives who recently had meetings with Google. The publication claims Google has solidified its strategy for India, which includes bringing its Nest brand to the country, along with Google Wi-Fi and the Pixelbook. If true, Google could greatly expand the audience for its... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2q2LDhg"

In a major shift that carries big implications for both companies, Apple will reportedly replace Intel’s processors with the company’s own chips in Mac computers as soon as 2020, according to a new report from Bloomberg . The changeover is likely to begin with laptops such as the 12-inch MacBook. Intel’s stock price took a hit soon after the report was published. Apple’s last major Mac processor transition of this scope occurred when it moved away from IBM’s PowerPC chips in favor of Intel’s. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs announced the move in 2005 and it was completed by the end of the following year. As in that earlier example, Bloomberg notes this would require a “multi-step transition.” But this choice to power Macs with its own... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2J8YIP7"

Epic Games’ Fortnite is officially out of beta on mobile, meaning anyone with an iPhone SE / 6S or later running iOS 11 (or an iPad mini 4 / Air 2 or later) can download the game and jump into a match. Epic announced the news on its Twitter feed this morning. Previously, Fortnite on iOS was available in an invite-only beta period, though invites were generously given out and friends were able to invite up to three others to join the free-to-play platform. You can download the game from the App Store here . It’s been a whirlwind of milestone-breaking and good news for Epic since the beginning of the year, as Fortnite has experienced a meteoric rise in both sales, popularity, and mainstream recognition. ( Thanks Drake .) The game’s... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2H1CPQV"

Today's Deal: Save 50% on Expeditions: Viking !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2EdY6nw"

Apple has applied to patent a VR system for autonomous cars that would use interior screens and VR headsets to alter the interior of the vehicle, as reported by VentureBeat . The patent, applied for in September 2017 and published last week, is framed as a way to “address problems with vehicles in motion that may result in motion sickness for passengers” by replacing views of the real world with virtual environments. On top of that, the patent proposes at least one VR controller that generates virtual content for projection and a mechanism for projecting onto windows of the vehicle. The visuals could then sync with an “active seat” and motion sensors, integrating the physical effects of driving (like turning around corners or stopping at... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2uCSuE0"

ESPN’s standalone subscription streaming service, ESPN+, will launch on April 12th for $4.99 per month. Customers can also choose to pay the annual price of $49.99. The service lacks the core ESPN cable channel itself, but the company hopes a comprehensive mix of professional and college sports can make up for that and bring in customers anyway. There won’t be a separate app for ESPN+; it will be integrated into the main ESPN mobile app, which will move to a “completely redesigned and reimagined” look on the same day. Unfortunately, we don’t have any screenshots or a preview of what that will entail. ESPN+ is being pitched as a major component of Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming future. It arrives ahead of Disney’s own subscription... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2pYKQyL"

Science Making us scratch our heads for millennia. To study primes, mathematicians strain whole numbers through one virtual mesh after another until only primes remain. This sieving process produced tables of millions of… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2q01oWf"

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hit back Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling Cook’s comments about Facebook “extremely glib.” Cook told Recode last week that he would never be in the situation that Zuckerberg has found himself in, facing backlash for the massive Cambridge Analytica data breach . Cook said, “The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer — if our customer was our product. We’ve elected not to do that.” Apple, instead, has monetized products to customers, and Cook argued that was a sounder business model and not vulnerable to the same problems Facebook is having. In an interview with Vox , Zuckerberg dismissed Cook’s argument as insincere and shallow. He said, “You know, I find that argument, that if you’re... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2uFcJ3X"

If a nuclear bomb went off on San Francisco, almost the entire tip of the peninsula would disappear under the fireball, shockwave, radiation, and catastrophic heat spreading from the blast. More than 100,000 people would die, and nearly 230,000 people would be injured. That’s according to a new online interactive simulator that lets you drop a virtual nuke anywhere in the world. Created by a Wisconsin-based educational nonprofit called the Outrider Foundation , the blast simulator is an effort to teach the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons. It’s surprisingly beautiful for an educational tool about destruction — “almost too beautiful for its own good,” writes Matt Novak at Gizmodo . But the Outrider simulator is more than just a... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2ImfyIW"