Ready for more new features on your Xbox One? Major Nelson just announced that the April software update Microsoft has been beta testing will start rolling out to all systems tonight. The big new feature is the return of notifications for when people…
Back in January, we detailed the work of Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis, the brain behind a giant machine that could 3D-print a 2500 square foot house in 24 hours. While that … Continue reading
Anybody will be able to buy Google Glass tomorrow, but ahead of this, Google is giving the Glass software an update. There are a couple of new features in this update, including new tools for making working with photos easier, but Google has also decided to remove the option to do video calls from Glass for the time being. Read More
For anyone who doubted that the Oculus Rift has some awesome
applications outside video games, it gives me great pleasure to present
to you "Conquest of the Skies," a nature documentary being developed by
Sir David Attenborough. It’ll be the first of
its kind – and hopefully first of many.
![Video Games Do Not Negatively Impact Academic Performance In Adolescents [Study]](https://i0.wp.com/cdn2.ubergizmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/violent-video-games-poll.jpg?resize=640%2C360 "Video Games Do Not Negatively Impact Academic Performance In Adolescents [Study]")
If you grew up playing games, chances are you have heard your parents nag and scold you for playing too much of it. There is also a good chance that if your grades slip or you did not do as well as you expected, your parents might blame video games as being the reason you aren’t doing so well in school.
Perhaps it might be too late for some of us, but for teens who enjoy video games, you might be interested to learn that a recent study conducted by researchers at the Flinders University in South Australia have found that video games do not negatively impact the academic performance of adolescents.
According to one of the researchers, Dr. Aaron Drummond, their research found that there was a small reduction in reading scores, but that impact was considered negligible. “Essentially it was not a large enough decline to be considered a problem.” He later adds, “There hadn’t been any comprehensive examination on whether or not there was a relationship between playing video games for adolescents and their performance at school. There seemed to be a lot of negative associations, but not enough evidence.”
Their research is based on the analysis of data from more than 192,000 students from 22 countries around the world and data from participants in the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment. It’s an interesting but what do you guys think? Are you in agreement with their findings?
Video Games Do Not Negatively Impact Academic Performance In Adolescents [Study] , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Gaming, study,
Whenever a movie has been announced for a particular game, gamers get excited, then they get a little nervous, and a little worried that the movie won’t be able to do the game justice. After all we’ve seen more than our fair share of flops from movies that are based on video games, like Doom.
Speaking to USA Today, Kirk Kjeldsen, an assistant professor in the cinema department at the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, attempted to explain why movies that are based on video games tend to not do so well. This is in response to EA wondering why the Need for Speed movie did not perform better, especially since it did show a lot of promise at the start.
According to Kjeldsen, movies and video games are “completely different animals”. He explains that this is because the way a movie is structured is different from how video games are structured. “Translating a non-linear narrative into a linear three-act structure is like making a song out of a painting or a sculpture.”
Kjeldsen adds that the video game movie which came close to impressing the critics was none other than 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, stating that the movie did a good job at taking the best parts of the game and discarding the rest.
However another professor of film studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Wheeler Winston Dixon, states that the simple reason why video game movies don’t do well, or “fail” according to him, is because they aren’t interactive. “With video games, the player is really the star of the movie, directing the actors, deciding what plotline to follow — and most importantly for most games, whom to shoot down to get to the next level. When this aspect of the game is missing, viewers no longer feel like part of the action.”
Is what they are saying true? Well if there is any truth to their claims and analysis, hopefully upcoming video game movies like Assassin’s Creed and World of Warcraft will be able to learn from this and hopefully not disappoint the fans that play its games.
University Professor Attempts To Explain Why Video Game Movies Tend To Fail , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Gaming, movies,
There are a couple of ways that gamers can play Titanfall. If you’re on the PC, you have the mouse and keyboard as one option, while gamers on console can use the gamepad in order to play it. However what if there was another way to play the game, would that be something you’d like to explore as well?
Well that’s what celebrity modder Ben Heck did in the latest episode of The Ben Heck Show. Instead of creating a controller mod that can be used with your hands, Heck has created custom foot pedals that he can use to play the game with! The pedals plug into your computer via USB, with the left foot pedal used to grab objects, while the right pedal is used to make his character run.
Heck even states that the pedals can come in 2 stages of depression, with a partial press to activate certain functions, while a full depress of the pedal can be used to perform another action. You can think of this 2 stage like how camera shutter buttons work, where a half-press of the shutter button is used to focus on the subject, while the full press will capture the image.
The good news is that Heck will be giving away his custom made foot pedals to the element14 community, so if you don’t know how or where to go about building your own custom foot pedals for Titanfall or for other games, you now stand a chance to win Heck’s creation. In the meantime if you’d like to check out the video and see how he goes about modding it and seeing it in action, check it out in the video above.
Ben Heck Creates Foot Pedals That Can Be Used To Play Titanfall With , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Gaming, Titanfall,
Every year at CES, we look forward to tech companies making television-related announcements. After all with all sorts of media content being available on the television, we’re sure customers are looking for something amazing to watch it on, right? However the question is, will this trend continue in the next couple of decades?
Speaking to the folks at Maximum PC, Oculus VR’s founder, Palmer Luckey, shared his thoughts on the traditional television and believed that in the next couple of decades, the television could eventually be deemed irrelevant. Instead he believes that virtual reality headsets, such as the Oculus Rift will be one of the ways consumers could consume content in the future.
“Why in the world would you buy a 60-inch TV that, even if it worked dirt cheap for that it’s still gonna cost a lot to ship it, to make it from raw materials. Yeah, I mean a VR headset is gonna be much better and much cheaper and you can take it anywhere.” Luckey’s statements seem to line up nicely with reports that a nature documentary is currently being filmed with the Oculus Rift in mind.
The documentary will allow users to take in the sights of Borneo in a field of view that they might not be able to experience if they were watching it on a regular television. While the Oculus Rift has been primarily thought of as a gaming accessory, its potential to replace television as a source of entertainment is there as well. What do you guys think? Do you agree that one day we’ll all be wearing virtual reality headsets and watching our shows through it instead of the television?
Oculus VR Founder Thinks Television Will Be Irrelevant In The Future , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Gadgets, Oculus Rift, virtual reality, Wearable Tech,
This is bizarre. A 16-year-old girl saw a giant black ring in the sky above England and captured it on video. After three minutes of floating around like a cloud, the black ring disappeared completely. So far, experts have no idea what it was.
If you are still using the HTC One from 2013 (or the HTC One M7 as it has also been referred to as), you might be pleased to learn that according to a recent tweet by HTC’s Jason Mackenzie, he has reminded HTC One users that they should be able to expect an update for their phones that will bring Sense 6 to the table by the end of May.
However we should note that Mackenzie represents HTC in the US, so we’re not sure when HTC One units in other parts of the world will receive the Sense 6, if they have not received it already. This is good news for users who are still using the HTC One and have no plans on upgrading to the HTC One M8. After all, the HTC One is only a year old and still has plenty of use left in it.
In fact Mackenzie’s tweet basically confirms a recently leaked HTC roadmap from back in March that states that Sense 6 will be arriving on the HTC One around May-June, but we guess it is now official. He did not confirm if the Sense 6 update will also be arriving on the other devices as per the rumor which includes the HTC One dual SIM model, the One Max, One Mini, and the Butterfly S.
In the meantime if you’re wondering what awaits you with the HTC Sense 6 update, you might want to check out this video which is basically an overview of what users can expect on their HTC One handsets post-update.
Sense 6.0 Arriving On HTC One By End Of May , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, HTC,
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