GameStop Digital PC Purchases No Longer Require the GameStop App
Ever since GameStop began selling digital copies of PC games in 2011, the process of actually acquiring the game involved multiple steps that turned several customers off; namely, requiring the GameStop app. Starting today, GameStop has revamped its process, removing the GameStop app requirement and instead allowing customers to receive download codes directly via email. Those codes can then be redeemed directly via the applicable service, such as Steam, Origin, or Uplay. Basically, just how other third-party e-tailers have operated for years.
To celebrate the relaunch, GameStop is holding a PC Gaming Spring Sale from now until June 2, with up to 85% off nearly 400 titles.
Source: GameStop via Polygon
Read More ...
Verizon Launches XLTE Service
Verizon today announced the launch of its XLTE service, which is a combination of the AWS spectrum and 700MHz spectrum. The rebranding is a pitch in marketing that Verizon is hoping consumers get excited for, as XLTE allows compatible devices to experience faster data speeds and access additional bandwidth. Verizon is hoping that by marketing these two spectrums under one roof, consumers will opt for devices that are compatible with XLTE, thereby helping to offload some of the heavy loads that networks experience during peak usage hours. The technology is similar to the Sprint Spark network offering, which offers three different network bands compared to Verizon's two.
Currently, around 35 percent of all Verizon devices active on its network support XLTE.
Source: CNET
Read More ...
Assassins Creed: Pirates Available for Web Browsers
Although Ubisoft originally developed Assassins Creed: Pirates for smartphones and tablets, the game has made its way to Internet browsers in a modified form that is available for free. The game takes a more simplified approach, with racing being the primary focus now instead of shooting others. What is nice about this though is that the web version of the game is all about competition, where players can challenge friends to see how fast the ship can be steered. Weather conditions can be changed within the game, providing more exciting conditions compared with the calm waters that are enabled by default.
Assassins Creed: Pirates is compatible with every major web browser, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari, but will only work with the desktop version of each.
Source: Engadget
Read More ...
Experiment to Transform Light into Matter Designed
For untold centuries, it was taken as fact that energy and matter are two separate existences in the Universe. About a hundred years ago though, theories indicating that matter and energy are two sides of the same coin, and thus one can be converted into the other, were developed. About 80 years ago, some physicists suggested one example of energy being converted to matter, and now researchers at the Imperial College London believe they have determined how to accomplish this.
The Breit-Wheeler theory predicts that by smashing photons together, it should be possible to create an electron-positron pair. While the theory was sound and recognized as the simplest means of turning light into matter, even the physicists doubted that it would ever be achieve. The London researchers however have found a way that should work, which takes advantage of high energy physics, like that used in fusion research. The experiment they propose will involve firing a very high energy beam of electrons at a gold slab, to create one beam of photons, and firing a laser into a hohlraum, which is a small gold can. This laser will cause the hohlruam to create a thermal radiation field, and when the beam from the gold slab enters it, photons should collide to produce the electron-positron pair.
As the London researchers are theorists, this experiment has not been attempted yet and may actually become a competition amongst other teams. Once achieved though, this will represent the final piece of the puzzle of how light and matter can interact.
Source: Imperial College London
Read More ...
New Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Trailer Explains How Runes Can Alter Your Weapons
Last month, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) released a Story Trailer for open-world, action-RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and announced that the game will be releasing October 7, 2014. Today, WBIE has posted a new video that explains how runes are used to upgrade weapons and change the way you play. The video also highlights the Death Threat system, which is essentially like creating your own mini-boss battles with the promise of an Epic Rune upon success.
Source: Press Release
Read More ...
New 3D Projector that May Improve 2D Projectors, Displays Too
Recently we have seen the return of the 3D fad in our media, though with significantly more advanced technology than the last time it was popular. As advanced as it is though, some things have not changed, including the need for special glasses. Thanks to some research from MIT though, that need may disappear, and we may see some other advances for both 3D and 2D video systems.
Traditionally 3D video has been achieved with the parallax barrier to create stereoscopic 3D. For years though MIT researchers have been developing multiperspective 3D, which actually presents the viewer with new perspectives as they move around an object. The researchers have already applied this approach to build glasses-free 3D displays, but now they have modified the approach to create glasses-free 3D projectors. Both in displays and the projector, multiple liquid crystal modulators are used, and these modulators are similar to the LCDs we are all familiar with. The modulators are placed one in front of the other, between the light source and the lens. With this configuration the researchers are able to control the angles that light reaches the second modulator at with the first. This control is what allows multiperspectives to be encoded into the projection.
While glasses-free 3D is definitely cool, this approach could be used to increase the resolution and contrast of the projectors, without having to replace the lens of use higher resolution modulators. The increased contrast comes from the 'black' states of both modulators combining to block more light, while the increased resolution is a bit trickier. As the light patterns passing through the modulators are offset from each other, they will interfere with each other, and by leveraging the power of GPUs with advanced algorithms, that interference can be used to increase the resolution of an image. The result would be to produce an Ultra HD image from HD components.
Source: MIT
Read More ...
Available Tags:3D ,
No comments:
Post a Comment