Geek News

Science What do we actually know about ancient astronomy? What do we actually know about how people of the past understood the sky and developed a cosmology? When it comes to studying ancient astronomy, we must be careful not… via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2G77QFi"

Macy’s is planning on using VR experiences to sell furniture to customers in 50 stores by this summer, becoming the latest company to jump on the bandwagon (brandwagon?) of using virtual reality to sell stuff to people, via VentureBeat . Unlike Amazon , Ikea , or Target — all of whom have some sort of augmented reality furniture experience to let users see how a table or chair might look in their living room — Macy’s is using actual VR, headset and all, to demo furniture to customers. As FurnitureToday reports , customers in Macy’s stores will be able to layout a room with furniture using a tablet, and then test out the design by actually “entering” the space in VR. Macy’s views the technology as enabling the company to demo a wider range... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2HMaVrz"

The Internet Archive has launched a Handheld History Collection filled with about 60 emulated versions of retro handheld games to take you back to the long car rides of your childhood. Archived games include Tiger Electronics’ Mortal Kombat , Bandai’s Burger Time , and Parker Brothers’ mini tabletop version of Q*bert , all of which can be played directly from your browser. MAME developers have classified over 200 games as “handheld,” so if you don’t see your favorite game on the list, be patient because more games will be added soon. Archivist Jason Scott outlined the emulation process of LCD, VFD, and LED-based games to MAME, and the thoughtful consideration that goes behind determining which games need to be preserved for posterity.... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2G8kIL8"

Google has launched a new program called Shopping Actions that will allow users to purchase items through Google search and Google Assistant. On Google search, the Google Express shopping service, and Google Assistant on home devices and mobile, shoppers can now save their payment credentials and make purchases from retailers with instant checkout. In exchange, retailers will give Google a cut of the profit from each purchase, which is different from the usual ad payments retailers make to Google for sponsored listings. Retailers will only pay Google when sales are made. For example, now you can search on Google for a scented candle, see a listing for a brand on Target, then add it to your Google Express cart. Then, you might decide to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2tXfbSO"

As The Verge ’s resident headphones obsessive, I’m not supposed to like the AirPods. My initial reaction upon first seeing them many months ago was to pour scorn on Apple’s designers for crafting a pair of expensive and easy-to-lose cigarette butts. The AirPods were the resurrection of the awful Bluetooth headsets of years past, I thought. But this year, I finally got around to testing a pair of the AirPods for myself, and I finally understand why everyone who owns them loves them . Taking the AirPods seriously hasn’t been easy for me. I spend my days attached to large and pricey headphones like the exceptional Audeze MX4 because my priorities are heavily skewed in favor of maximizing sound quality over convenience. Convenience for... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2G9Du57"

Science What scientists learn about animal cognition helps unravel the mysteries of intelligence. What scientists learn about animal cognition helps unravel the mysteries of intelligence. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2tW9GDO"

It feels like almost every aspect of Huawei’s upcoming P20 and P20 Pro flagship phones has leaked ahead of the March 27th release date, and now we can add one more leak to the list: the European prices for the phones. According to Twitter user Roland Quandt ( via MobileScout ), the P20 will cost €679 (around $835) while the larger P20 Pro will run for €899 (roughly $1,106). What you get for ur money when buying the P20/P20 Pro (WEU): P20 = 5.8in, 4/128GB = 679 Euro. P20 Pro = 6.1in (not 6.01), 6/128GB = 899 Euro. no other memory variants planned for Euroland, it seems. Other regions will get more variants. Some more official shots (size comparison): pic.twitter.com/ldi9oZ9jbj — Roland Quandt (@rquandt) March 18, 2018 According to the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2G6LJyE"

HTC says it will charge $799 for its new, higher-resolution Vive Pro virtual reality headset — and we mean, literally, just the headset. Vive Pro preorders open today, with the first headsets shipping on April 5th. They’re designed to be swapped into an existing Vive setup, using the old Vive’s lighthouse tracking beacons and controllers. Meanwhile, the current Vive system will drop to $499, cutting $100 off the current price. Anyone who purchases a Vive Pro by June 3rd will get six free months of HTC’s Viveport subscription service, and a price for a full Vive Pro kit will be announced sometime in the future. The Vive Pro was announced early this year at CES, marking the first major upgrade to the Vive since its launch in 2016. It... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2Iy3kOm"

Animals These weird lil’ guys defy everything about how we try to categorize animals. You may have heard that platypuses are going to save us from antibiotic resistance. This may or may not be true. But here’s what we do know: they’re definitely weird… via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2poyHSN"

LG just released an open-sourced version of webOS that’s freely available to anyone that wants to download and poke around the code. The release of webOS Open Source Edition is meant to act as a catalyst to drive further adoption of webOS beyond LG televisions, smart refrigerators, and the occasional never-to-be-released smartwatch. So, devices like webOS tablets and set-top boxes as pictured in the LG-supplied image above. This is the second time an open-source version of webOS has been released, the first coming under the failed tenure of HP back in 2011. LG’s cross-town rival Samsung develops and uses the open-sourced Tizen operating system on a variety of devices including smartwatches, televisions, Blu-ray players, and robotic... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2G9MsPs"

Apple is using a secret facility in California to design and manufacture prototype MicroLED screens, according to a report from Bloomberg. Engineers are said to have produced fully functional Apple Watch-sized MicroLED screens at the facility, with a view to using the technology commercially for the first time in the watch. The Apple Watch currently uses OLED screens from LG Display. MicroLED is a complex new emissive display technology where, like OLED, each pixel gives off its own light instead of relying on backlighting for the entire panel. This can give MicroLED excellent contrast, power efficiency, and viewing angles without OLED's compromises on brightness or longevity. Samsung is also working on MicroLED and showed off a 146-inch... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FLPg6f"

On Saturday, the USS Colorado, the US Navy’s latest Virginia-class attack submarine, went into service from the Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut. It comes with an unconventional piece of equipment: an XBox controller, according to USA Today . The Navy said in September that the new submarines would come equipped with a pair of photonics masts, which replace the previously-used periscope. The masts feature high-resolution cameras that can rotate 360 degrees and feeds their imagery to monitors in the ship’s control room. Initially, the masts were controlled with a “helicopter-style stick,” but those were described as heavy and clunky, and were swapped out with an Xbox 360 controller. According to the Colorado’s commanding... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GH09mM"

Following Facebook and Google’s footsteps, Twitter is reportedly planning to ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs), according Sky News . In January, Facebook prohibited ads for currencies such as Bitcoin in an effort to combat deceptive marketers, while Google followed suit last week . Sky News says (via Engadget ) that the new advertising policies would ban worldwide ads for ICOs, token sales, and cryptocurrency wallets. The site might also ban ads for cryptocurrency exchanges, but with some possible exceptions. The ban could begin in as soon as two weeks. We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment, and will update this post if we hear back. This isn’t the first set of steps that Twitter has taken to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DBj1AE"

Match Group, the company that holds a large portfolio of dating services, such as Tinder, Match.com, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish, to name a few, and was in talks last year to purchase dating and professional networking service Bumble. According to Recode , Match is still looking to acquire the service, but it’s going about it in an unconventional way: by suing it for patent infringement. On Friday, Match filed a lawsuit that accuses Bumble of infringing on a pair of patents held by Tinder : one called “Matching Process System and Method,” in which users swipe cards and mutually select one another, as well as “Display Screen or Portion Thereof With a Graphical User Interface of a Mobile Device,” which it describes as an “ornamental aspect” of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FTniRO"

If you sleep on your Apple Watch the wrong way, you might get a wake-up call from the police. That’s what happened to Jason Rowley, who tweeted about the incident earlier this week. Using his watch as a sleep tracker, he ended up holding down the crown button to trigger an emergency call to the police, who showed up in his bedroom at 1AM. Rowley told us the police were friendly and helpful, and accustomed to WatchOS misdials like this one. Public service announcement: If you sleep with an Apple Watch on, consider turning off the Emergency SOS feature, or you too may wake up to 3 cops in your bedroom at 1 AM. — Jason D. Rowley (@Jason_Rowley) March 16, 2018 If you scan through Twitter , you’ll find a surprising number of stories like... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2tZozoX"