From Thinkgeek:
Straight from the First Galactic Empire’s table to you is our high-quality Star Wars Black Empire Ceramic Teapot. Sip on hot tea from the 4-cup capacity black ceramic teapot with a starfield pattern and several TIE fighters flying through a large Imperial logo. These are all the rage at First Order meetings, delivered by EXD-9 droids in white (protocol) mode, but their red (infiltrator) mode has proven to be too… messy.
iOS 11 will not support the iPhone 5 or 5C, nor 32-bit apps. But the new system does have a range of changes that might be genuinely useful.
The 5 and 5c won’t get the new system, a move that while not exactly unexpected, shows the ruthless pace of device upgrades, with the phones getting software updates for less than three years. The fourth generation iPad, which dates back to 2012, is also being dropped from the supported list.
Newer iPads, particularly the Pro models, are arguably the biggest winners from iOS11. It’s adding support for drag-and-drop, an app dock and a file explorer, which greatly increases its appeal as a replacement rather than a complement for a laptop computer.
Another addition to iOS 11 is “Do Not Disturb While Driving”, which can automatically switch on when the phone detects it is in a car, whether that be based on movement or because it’s connected to the car itself via Bluetooth. The feature isn’t mandatory and if you do have it on, you can manually override it with a single tap (for example, if you are a passenger.)
When the mode is active, notifications and alerts are blocked, though you can set specific exceptions. You can also have the phone send an automated reply to callers or messagers to explain that you are driving.
Users of Apple Pay will be able to send money directly to friends (assuming they also have Apple Pay) rather than just retailers. The payment option will be built into iMessage, with a Touch ID fingerprint required for confirmation.
Most of the other changes are minor tweaks that some will find useful: for example, there’ll be a screen recorder; and you’ll be able to use Siri by typing queries when you can’t or don’t want to speak; QR code-recognition will be built directly into the camera app.
As well as unveiling iOS11, Apple also demonstrated HomePod, it’s take on the Google Home/Amazon Echo combo of internet-connected speaker with voice recognition. It’s not clear yet how well the Siri-based features actually work, but those who tried it say the sound quality of the speaker is excellent, though at $350 you’d certainly hope that was the case.
A view of the HomePod from the top. Yep, it looks a little like HAL 9000 when it responds. Creepy.
A skincare clinic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, recently adopted a new logo to represent its business: The Umbrella Corporation logo. Let’s just hope their skin creams won’t turn the whole world into one giant real-life version of Resident Evil.
After the Internet pointed the connection out, the Medcare Skin Centre responded saying they were unaware of the connection and that the logo was purchased from a third-party.
Don’t you just love how the Internet brought to whole world closer together? :)
[Via FG]
Pilgrim is a horror overhaul for Fallout 4 created from the ground up by l00ping and TreyM, the creators of Photorealistic Commonwealth and Cinematic Film Looks. This mod takes much of it’s inspiration from the atmosphere and weather seen in the American horror film, The Witch.
New weather, sounds, and environment lighting have been completely designed from scratch by l00ping to bring dreadful atmosphere and realism. A new camera emulation system has been designed by TreyM using a new tonemapping method that emulates the way a digital cinema camera captures footage on a film set. A new weather plugin has been created with this new tonemapping method in mind and is tightly integrated with the ENB, which means the weather plugin will only work properly with Pilgrim.
[Oh Deer]
Me (as well as most geeks on Earth) love Batman and anything Batman related. We just can’t get enough of the angry dude in the sweet bat-cowl. Thankfully, some other delightful soul who has the same affection for the Bat-Fam as we all do decided to put all the Super Moves from all the Batman “family” (bad guys AND good) from the kickass new Injustice 2 game into one video.
Yes, they are as all as awesome as you are assuming they are. Check them out above (but spoilers for those who have not played Injustice 2).
Tags: batman, gaming, injustce, injustice 2, Joker
Dutch householders could have showers heated by computer servers under a creative, if potentially problematic project.
The idea of Nerdalize is to bring together two problems: the need to extract heat from servers to keep them running well, and the need to heat homes. The theory is that combining the two will save money and also reduce unnecessary energy use.
The company has already run a small-scale program in which businesses hired a server that would not be located in a data center but rather inside a wall heater in somebody’s home. The Verge reports that it fundamentally worked, though the heaters were slow to respond and only heated small rooms.
The next stage of the pilot is to use servers to heat home water supplies. It’ll be tested in around 20 homes, with forecasts that each participant will save an average of €300 (US$337) and cut total household carbon emissions by around 25 percent. Meanwhile the businesses renting the server will save around 50 percent on the cost of equivalent server space in a dedicated facility.
The householders will need to pay the installation costs, with payback time estimated at 18 months (implying around €450 in initial costs), so it’s something of a gamble on the project taking off. They will receive a rebate to cover the cost of the electricity used by the server.
For the most part, the servers will be used for data processing rather than long-term storage, meaning there’s less risk from a server being damaged. Nerdalize says that all data will be end-to-end encrypted and the heaters physically secured to prevent the householder (or potentially a burglar) getting access to the server.
Microsoft has apologized after mistakenly sending out preview versions of Windows 10 that weren’t ready and could cause problems. In some cases they even went to people who aren’t in the Insider test program.
The company says the blunder happened because of “an inadvertent deployment to the engineering system that controls which builds/which rings to push out to insiders.”
The build in question, 16212, went out to people regardless of which of the four rings (release schedules) of the program users were in.
It quickly blocked the updates from going out to anyone else and has halted all new build releases until next week. Microsoft isn’t offering precise figures but says “a small portion of folks got these builds.”
Windows 10 desktop owners who are in the Insider program are warned the new build “may include issues that impact usability of your PC – more so than the normal builds we give you.” Microsoft says those users can either wait it out for the next planned build, or roll back to a previous build.
The news is worse for Windows 10 Mobile users on the Insider program. Those who installed the mistakenly released build will find their device in a reboot loop. They’ll need to re-flash their device using the Windows Device Recover Tool, which will install the latest public release. Those users can then rejoin the Insider program, assuming they haven’t been put off.
Mobile users who got the mistakenly released build but haven’t installed it should backup their device, then reset it, which should remove the unwanted download. After resetting, they should check they are still listed on the right ring in the Insider program.
Users who aren’t on the Insider program at all may still have seen the rogue build downloaded, but Microsoft says it simply won’t install on those user’s devices so there’s no need to do anything.
Actor Tom Holland recently visited LA Children’s Hospital to offer support to young patient there. Tom truly is the real-life incarnation of the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
Donned in the official suit from the movie, Tom visited patients on the Cardiovascular Acute unit, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases, Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Rehabilitation Unit and Infusion Center.
