Geek News

NextVR has been partnering with the NBA to livesream games for the last two years , and now it's going to cover the upcoming Finals. After each game, the service will upload free-to-watch highlights in a new high-resolution format to its dedicated NextVR app, which works with most virtual reality headsets. Those with higher-end VR gear like the HTC Vive Pro will be able to fully appreciate the higher-resolution format, according to a press release. The company's partnership with the NBA continues to be the only regular VR sports programming across all mainstream American sports (along with the occasional golf tournament ). via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2JmjptE If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml , t...

Today, Uganda's parliament passed a controversial "social media tax." It will consist of a daily fee of about 200 shillings (5 US cents) levied on anyone who uses social networking and messaging apps and platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. According to Trading Economics , in 2016, Uganda had a per-capita income of $666.10, so this isn't an insubstantial tax. President Yoweri Museveni was a vocal supporter of and advocate the bill. He believes that social media encourages "gossip," according to BBC News . The law will go into effect as of July 1st, but it's not clear how the government will monitor its citizens or collect the tax. This is certainly a strange way to regulate the use of social media within a country. It's possible there may also be a political angle here, as President Musaveni suspended access to social me...

Earlier this year, Signify announced new integrations for its Philips Hue bulbs that included a Hue Sync app to automatically coordinate your lights with whatever you're doing on your computer. Now, the free Philips Hue Sync app is available for both Mac and PC. The new app allows users to sync Hue smart light levels and colors to video, games and music. The lights can "dance" to the beat of your music track or mimic the hues you see on your screen. ""Following several entertainment pilots, we've refined the way lighting can be used with games, music and video," Jasper Vervoort, the Head of Marketing and Product Management, Home Systems and Luminaires, said in a release . "Philips Hue offers a unique way to simply match light effects to consumers' content in a fast and synchronized way, delivering an engaging, immersive experie...

Microsoft's Groove Music service bowed out months ago , but all the apps have been available for listening to your personal files... until now. The company has revealed that its Android and iOS apps will disappear from their respective online stores on June 1st, 2018, and the apps themselves will be "retired" (that is, stop working) on December 1st. After that, you'll have to use OneDrive or migrate your songs elsewhere to keep listening in the cloud. The Windows 10 apps for PCs, Windows-powered phones and Xbox One will continue to work for your personal collection, so this isn't a complete shutdown of the software. However, there's little doubt that Microsoft is reducing Groove Music's support to the bare essentials. Now that it has effectively conceded to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, there's not much point to maintainin...

Netflix debuted the first half of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt 's fourth (and final) season this week, though we didn't know when the second would air. Unfortunately, fans will have a bit of a wait: The last six episodes will arrive on January 25th, 2019, which will end the show's run. It's unclear how much the last six episodes will wrap up the show's story. Its producer, Universal Television, was reportedly in talks for a movie to conclude the epic tale of the eponymous Kimmy Schmidt's life after emerging from the bunker of a doomsday cult. The remaining six episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's fourth season will hit Netflix on January 25, 2019 pic.twitter.com/hwuHKnQYUd — See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) May 31, 2018 Source: Deadline via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2LLBkbC ...

If your Xbox copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is stashed away on a shelf somewhere, you might want to pull it out as you'll have some use for it again next week. Starting next Thursday, Rockstar Games is adding backwards compatibility for the game on Xbox One, as well as Midnight Club: Los Angeles and the slightly off-brand Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis . The San Andreas compatibility is a boon for GTA fans. The story of Carl Johnson trying to save his family is often hailed as one of the best games ever, and it's one of the highest-selling games of all time. Either the Xbox and Xbox 360 copy will work on your new-fangled console, but Xbox saves won't transfer. If you do have the OG Xbox version, you can download the Xbox 360 HD remaster with better draw distances and the all-important Achievements. These three games join Red Dead Rede...

Walmart has been ramping up its remote shopping efforts, including expanding its grocery delivery with Postmates and adding more of its 'pickup towers' for online orders. At a shareholder meeting today, the retail giant formally unveiled its next project: A new service out of the company's incubator Store No. 8 that lets users order items with a text message. We first heard hints of the platform, called Jetblack , in December. It's reportedly been beta testing in New York and will expand to other US markets at some point. The service costs members $50 per month, which grants access to personal shoppers. Customers can ask them for recommendations, pick between photos of different products, and place orders -- all through text messaging. Membership includes delivery, gift-wrapping and returns, but not groceries. The service won't be limited to ...

SoftBank hasn't been shy about its interest in smart cars , and it's taking that fascination to a new level. The company's Vision Fund is investing $2.25 billion in GM's self-driving vehicle unit Cruise . The cash influx will start with $900 million the moment the transaction closes, and will finish with $1.35 billion once the completely driverless Cruise AV car is ready to launch. The move will give the Vision Fund a 19.6 percent stake in Cruise -- not enough to take control, but it could easily prove influential. This isn't a complete shock when the Fund has been pouring money into ride-hailing services like Uber, Didi Chuxing and Grab on top of its usual tech investments. However, it still shows that SoftBank is determined to have a say in the future of autonomous transportation. And GM certainly isn't complaining. This helps it...

Instead of ripping each other's malware out of victim systems, the groups behind Trickbot and IcedID are playing nice with each other, says Flashpoint. via Dark Reading: https://ift.tt/2ssnP7X If New feed item from http://www.darkreading.com/rss/all.xml , then send

As California gears up for its primary, many of the state's Republicans are fuming over how Google described their party in its search results. Those searching for "California Republicans" or "California Republican Party" would have found a result that listed "Nazism" as one of the party's ideologies along with "Conservatism," "Market liberalism," "Fiscal conservatism" and "Green conservatism." Vice News spotted the listing and Google removed the label following a query from the publication. Google insists the listing wasn't put in place by a human but instead was a result of vandalized public information sources getting through systems meant to catch them. The information included in Google's knowledge panels, like the one listing Nazism as an ideology of the California Republica...