Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.
This week is all about being humbled. New images from NASA remind us how truly small we are, while a blind computer artist reminds us we could try harder. Perhaps the “easiest” feat this week is a village that is redirecting the sun for five months of the year. No biggie. This is alt-week.
Your father may have taken you camping, or driven you to cello practice, or taught you all the lyrics to Jefferson Starship songs. But chances are he didn’t go the lengths Laurent Aigon. Over the last five years, at great expensive and after much effort, he built a 737 cockpit so life-like, it’s been used as a training simulator.
Already locked down your Xbox One Day One Edition order? Now’s your chance to also reserve its initial batch of accessories (including that mono Chat Headset, which isn’t included with the console). The Wireless Controller ($60), Play and Charge Kit ($25) and Chat Headset ($25) for the Xbox One have all popped up for pre-order at the Microsoft Store. The One’s gamepad rings up at five bones more than the 360 variant, but it’s also available as a $75 bundle with the Play and Charge Kit (roughly 10 dollars in savings). Joystiq notes that Gamestop and Amazon are also options, albeit only for the controller itself. If you plan to reserve any of the accessories, we’d suggest taking Microsoft’s Dec 31st arrival date as a loose estimate — the One releases in November and Amazon is pegging the controller for November 27th.
The last time France saw the Statue of Liberty, the copper sculpture was in pieces, being shipped to New York for permanent installation. But this summer in Paris, Vietnamese artist Danh Vo has installed his recreation of the iconic monument in 30 copper fragments, each an exact replica of the original—right down to her reading material.
The Chromecast was arguably one of the most talked-about new products that was revealed by Google earlier this week. The new Nexus 7 and Android 4.3 were cool and all, but the Chromecast definitely got most of the attention, and it’s easy to see why: it’s a media streaming device the size of a dongle, and it only costs $35 ($11 after the 3-month Netflix discount, which has since been discontinued). However, after playing around with it for a little while, I’ve noticed that it’s an awesome device for some people, and an awful device for others.
Perhaps the biggest point that’s being argued over is the lack of streaming options available for the Chromecast. While more and more services will eventually support the new device, only Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play are supported. This is obviously a huge turn-off for those who take advantage of the likes of Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, etc., but for me, the only streaming services I use are Netflix and YouTube (okay, I use Spotify too, but I never use it on a TV anyways). Then again, these other services can be accessed through the Chrome browser and relayed to the Chromecast, so not all hope is lost there.
But the support for Netflix and YouTube means that the Chromecast supports all of the video streaming services that I use, which is a huge win for me, but a huge loss for those who use anything other than these two services. Again, though, the Chromecast SDK will allow more and more streaming services to add support eventually, so the only question is when that will happen.
The Chromecast is great for a variety of things, including presentations (just as long as your presentation is through a Chrome browser, which shouldn’t be too hard, thanks to Google Drive’s Presentation app). You can mirror a Chrome tab to the Chromecast, and keep browsing other tabs on your computer while that tab remains on the TV. And yes, if you’re on that active tab, any action you do will be mirrored to the Chromecast, which is great for showing a large crowd something on your computer.
However, a huge complaint that I have after playing around with it for about an hour, is that it’s just not as convenient as a streaming set-top box like an Apple TV or Roku. It’s also harder to use for those who aren’t tech-minded. My wife, for example, found the process of using the Chromecast to be extremely tedious compared to just browsing around on a set-top box using a remote control. She found it was quicker and easier to select the content she wanted on a set-top box rather than using the Chromecast.
However, even though I’m pretty tech savvy, I still found the Chromecast to be a little tedious at times. For example, I love watching episodes of How It’s Made while I fall asleep, and the nice thing I like about set-top boxes is that they’ll automatically play the next episode. Chromecast doesn’t do this. Instead, after a show is over and I want to watch another one, I have to wake my smartphone, and scroll down to the next episode. Sadly, there’s no option of just tapping “Next” in the Netflix app. With that said, it’s simply just easier to use a remote control in this instance.
Obviously, that’s a very specific example of when the Chromecast doesn’t exactly work well, but from an overall perspective, I really like it. It’s extremely portable, so I can take it with me when I travel and use it in hotel rooms to watch my Netflix shows, instead of using my laptop’s small screen and awful speakers. It’s also a great device for parties, especially when you’re all gathered in the living room and you want to show everyone a funny YouTube video. All you have to do is bring it up on your smartphone and beam it the Chromecast to have it start playing on the big screen.
In a broader sense, the only downside is latency. Google already said that gaming is out of the question because of slow latency, and pausing/resuming video, as well as adjusting volume took a second or two to kick in for me. Granted, I was in a room in my apartment that gets really crappy WiFi coverage, so I’m guessing the latency would be a bit better than this in a well-covered area.
As far as the extra USB power cable that everyone keeps complaining about, it’s really not a big deal. Yes, Google was pretty shady in skimming over that bit of information during the announcement, but if you have a USB port on your TV, it’s seriously not a huge problem at all. Even if you have to plug it into an outlet, it’s plug-and-forget.
Obviously, the Chromecast may not be anything too special right now, except for it’s extremely-low price point, but I can only see the device getting better and better as time goes on. Thanks to the accompanying SDK, we should be seeing more and more apps support the Chromecast, and we wouldn’t be surprised if hackers got their hands on it as well and did some really neat stuff with it. And of course, we reckon you’ll be able to grab a Chromecast for next to nothing on eBay once the hype settles.
The 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, has created an ongoing environmental and public health crisis. Nuclear experts say that the greatest radiation-releasing damage to the plant may have been caused by the explosion of built-up hydrogen as the plant overheated. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new coating for nuclear fuel rods they say prevents precisely that explosive situation.
Boomerang’s latest update adds tweaked functionality, moving it from one-trick unicorn territory to a possible Gmail app-replacement. Developer Baydin’s improvements include Google Cloud Messaging-based push notifications, the ability to “send from” and multi-message selection for bulk mailbox organizing. If you’re a fan of the email giant’s new tabbed inbox, you’re out of luck for now — everything here is still lumped into one list. If you ask politely enough though, we’re sure the dev will consider supporting it; version 0.8’s shiny features were community suggested, after all.
deviantART member/miner/crafter AwesomeTikiWiki made this Minecraft sword plushie as “a present of sorts.” I think she gave it to someone she hated, because this sword won’t help anyone defeat even a pixelated chicken.
AwesomeTikiWiki says she painstakingly sewed this huggable weapon by hand to make sure that she got the pixelated look right. Head to her deviantART page to check her crafting recipe.
During their routine teardown procedure of Google’s new Chromecast, iFixit noticed what appears to be a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy easter egg that’s hiding in plain sight.
Happy Saturday friends! Since you are inside staring at the Internet instead of outside staring at the ocean, here’s a selection of the most bestest stories we published this week. They will make you laugh and cry simultaneously with outrage and joy!
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