More than 20 universities join Open Source Virtual Reality movement

The Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform has partnered with more than 20 research institutions and universities for its OSVR Academia program. As part of the initiative, OSVR Academia provides hardware development kits and support to universities, so they are able to develop VR-based software.

Universities and research institutions include facilities in the United States, UK, Canada, Italy, Poland, Spain, Germany and Austria - with US institutions including Johns Hopkins University, University of North Carolina, and Virginia Tech.

"OSVR is an important piece of the emerging consumer VR ecosystem," said Eric Hodgson, director of the Smale Interactive Visualization Center at Miami University. "The ability to make so many devices and software interfaces standardized, interoperable, compatible, and interchangeable has the potential to change the way people interact with their hardware and software."

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YouTube begins experimenting with 4K 60FPS video playback

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Mar 26, 2015 11:32 PM CDT

In something that feels like the perfect evolution of Internet video, YouTube has started experimenting with 4K 60FPS video playback. But, there's only a few clips that are capable of this insane amount of bandwidth.

Most of the videos on YouTube are nowhere near this resolution and framerate, with most cameras not capable of shooting 4K 60FPS video to begin with. In order to watch the 4K 60FPS videos on YouTube you're going to of course require a 4K 60Hz capable panel, which aren't too hard to find now.

There are just six hand-picked 4K 60FPS videos on YouTube right now, with the 4K 60FPS playlist on YouTube available here.

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LG's G Watch Urbane with LTE will cost around $590, launches very soon

Anthony Garreffa | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Mar 26, 2015 8:32 PM CDT

The LG G Watch Urbane is one of the slickest wearables unveiled in the last couple of months, but the new LTE-powered version of the watch will soon be made available, with a huge $590 cost.

It might not be as much as what Apple is asking for its Watch, and the $10,000 Watch, but it's quite expensive compared to Pebble Time at $179, Motorola's Moto 360 for $249, and Apple's Watch starting at $349. The G Watch Urbane is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2GHz, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. There'll also be LTE connectivity in the LTE-powered version, which will allow wearers to make and receive phone calls without having to tether to their smartphone.

Continue reading: LG's G Watch Urbane with LTE will cost around $590, launches very soon (full post)

Netflix 'Inspector Gadget' cartoon reboot gets a trailer

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 26, 2015 7:23 PM CDT

For children of the 80's like me, 'Inspector Gadget' wasn't just the highlight of ABC TV or a trip to the video shop - it was probably my first pop culture obsession. Well either that or 'Thomas the Tank Engine. So it's with more than a passing interest that I was keen to check out the newly rebooted CG series which has been picked up by Netflix, and which has just released it's first trailer.

I'll be honest - first impressions don't seem great. And why the hell have they changed that classic theme song? The new 26-episode series hits the US Netflix platform today, before widening to other markets including Latin America, the U.K., Ireland, Benelux, France and the Nordics later in the year.

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NVIDIA preparing GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 6GB VRAM, faster than Titan X

It seems like a given, but NVIDIA is preparing another VGA card for release in the very near future: the GeForce GTX 980 Ti. The GTX 980 Ti would be a cut down version of the GM200-powered Titan X, with 6GB framebuffer and it'll be around 10% faster than Titan X, too.

According to SweClockers the new GeForce GTX 980 Ti would be the flagship card that NVIDIA will push, versus the Titan X. One of the reason this is, in my opinion, is that the new GTX 980 Ti can have add-in-board (AIB) partners play with the PCB and cooling setup, something that can't be done on the Titan X.

This will allow for some huge overclocks on the GTX 980 Ti, and some very exotic cooling setups. We should expect NVIDIA to unveil the GeForce GTX 980 Ti sometime in the second half of the year, after AMD launch its Radeon R9 390X.

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Calling all shredders, the jamstik+ is a wireless guitar for iOS

Chris Smith | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Mar 26, 2015 5:33 PM CDT

Designed to work with your iPhone, iPad or Mac computer, the jamstik+ is clearly labeled as a "Kickstarter staff pick" and has already over-doubled their $50,000 goal with 41 days still left to donate.

Connecting to your device though BluetoothSmart, this device pairs up with the jamTutor app in order to teach you a load of different guitar lessons or used with jamMix to create a sound of your own. The jamstik+ will sense the positioning of your fingers and helps to produce instant feedback to help with learning (or shredding).

An investment of $229 will see you receive a jamstik+ in black with a Custom Soft Case - listed as $120 less than the retail pricing.

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You want to build an amazing project PC but where do you start?

Chris Smith | Modding | Mar 26, 2015 5:12 PM CDT

As seen on the Watercooled PC Facebook page, modder Ilija Dakic has posted his preliminary plans and intentions for a seriously awesome PC mod project.

You want to build an amazing project PC but where do you start?

As you can see from the image above, he's looking to take AMD's CPU project literally - producing a 'BULLDOZER' build featuring an AMD chip as its core.

He has begun the journey by making these few drawings to illustrate the design concept and idea, following it up with some real life sticky tape-laden examples and then furthering it with specific measurements and analysis.

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Sony announces 'the thinnest 4K LCD TV' at just 4.9mm thick

Anthony Garreffa | Displays & Projectors | Mar 26, 2015 7:44 AM CDT

Sony has just unveiled its new line of Bravia TVs, with a mix of 4K and 1080p sets that are sure to impress. One of the stand outs from this is the new X9000C from Sony, a new 4K TV that is just 4.9mm thick.

The new X9000C is just 4.9mm thick, making it thinner than most of the smartphones on the market. This gave Sony the huge headline of "the world's thinnest 4K LCD TV" which I'm sure it's going to use to its advantage. Sony's Creative Center Toyko Senior Director, Daisuke Shiono, the X9000C series uses the "Floating Style" suspension design. The company has also stuck to its "seamless" design concept, as you can see in the image above.

Sony's new TV is powered by its own 4K image processing chip: X1. Sony's X1 processor uses elite light-control technology that can "let the audience see the chiaroscuro more significant picture, as if the reality of light and dark portions of the visual effects".

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Facebook's News Feed will soon feature 360-degree spherical videos

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Mar 26, 2015 5:16 AM CDT

During Facebook's F8 developer conference, CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that 360-degree spherical videos will soon be on users' News Feeds.

Zuckerberg showed the audience a demonstration of the new 360-degree video, which was filmed at its Menlo Park-based HQ. The in-house footage was captured with an array of 24 camera working together, which allows a user to look freely within a virtual environment - perfect for that $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR last year.

The best bit about the new 360-degree videos is that they don't require a VR headset like the Oculus Rift to be played back, as they'll work on normal computers, smartphones and tablets. Facebook does want to see Oculus Rift owners putting their Rift headsets on and watching the content that way, but we don't even know when the CV1 of the Rift will be made available yet. Facebook has, however, been on a .huge hiring spree leading up to the launch of the Oculus Rift CV1

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Russia teases new trans-Siberian highway from New York to London

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 26, 2015 1:46 AM CDT

The Siberia Times is reporting that Russian Railways' President, Vladimir Yakunin, has proposed a plan to build a gigantic trans-Siberian highway that would stretch from London, to New York.

The project has been called the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development, or TEPR, which would see a major highway constructed alongside the existing Trans-Siberian Railway, right next to a new train network, and oil and gas pipelines. Siberian Times quoted Yakunin as saying: "This is an inter-state, inter-civilization, project. The project should be turned into a world 'future zone,' and it must be based on leading, not catching, technologies".

Yakunin has said that the proposed TEPR would run across the entirety of Russia, linking up to the existing road systems found in Western Europe and Asia. Yakunin also added that it would connect Russia directly with North America through its own far eastern Chukotka region, and then across the Bering Strait, through to Alaska's Seward Peninsula.

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