You might think all flashlights are created equal, but don’t tell that to a flashaholic. There are large online communities of flashlight aficionados who take their illumination very seriously, and there’s a good chance even they’ll be impressed by LED Lenser’s new F1 which manages to squeeze a whopping 400 lumens from a single CR123 battery. More »
Online and offline sharing of copyrighted music took a nosedive last year, according to NPD. [Read more]
The long awaited World of Warcraft movie is finally moving forward, and with a director that is both exciting and surprising. Duncan Jones of Moon and Source Cod e fame has snapped up the directing gig. Originally helmed by Sam Raimi, the project was dropped by the Evil Dead director so he could concentrate on his Oz movie. Honestly, we thought this project was long dead, but Jones and Warner Bros. are planning on starting production on the movie adaptation of the role-playing game in 2013! More »
One thing your iPhone could be better at: sending secret encrypted messages (aka for sexting and/or illicit relationships). The regular messages app leaves everything hanging out in the open! Text Fortress is an app that encrypts the messages you send and locks them down so only the person you sent it to, can see it. More »
I don’t get Vine. I don’t give a looping turd about it. Every video I’ve seen so far is six seconds of jerky concentrated idiocy. I may be too old for this crap but I’m not alone—thanks, [ Willa via Laughing Squid via Petapixel ] More »
You say the words “laser turret”, and you think strategy games. Maybe shooters. They’re as clichéd a defensive tool that science fiction stories can get, but now, thanks to German scientists, they’re real. More »
adeelarshad82 writes “Oculus VR Rift is a one of the seventeen kickstarter projects to raise more than a million dollars in 2012 and a recently published hands-on shows exactly why it was so successful. Using Oculus VR Rift with the upcoming Infinity Blade and a modified version of Unreal Tournament 3, the analyst found that the 3D effect and head tracking provided a great sense of immersion. At one point while playing Infinity Blade, the analyst describes walking around the guards and watching their swords shift as he stepped, seeming like they were inches from cutting him. While he felt that the demo was impressive, he found that the software limitations made the whole experience a bit unrealistic. Needless to say that Oculus Rift is a long way from hitting stores but Oculus VR is getting ready to ship developer kits.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A new report claims Apple’s next OS X release will include built-in Siri — Apple’s voice assistant — along with the company’s own maps application. [Read more]
lee1 writes “Using special techniques that present information to one eye while hiding the information from the conscious mind (by masking it with more distracting imagery presented to the other eye), researchers have shown two new and very unexpected things: we can read and understand short sentences, and we can perform multi-step arithmetic problems, entirely unconsciously. The results of the reading and calculating are available to and influence the conscious mind, but we remain unaware of their existence. While we have known for some time that a great deal of sensory processing occurs below the surface and affects our deliberative behavior, it was widely believed until now that the subconscious was not able to actually do arithmetic or parse sentences.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Activision says the debut is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth consecutive year. [Read more]
