Getting your hands on a bleeding-edge gaming laptop is an exercise in chasing chip architecture. It’s sort of a waiting game. You wait for Intel and NVIDIA to upgrade their GPU and CPU standards, you wait for early adopter manufacturers to put them t…
There’s nothing more boring than waiting around for your meal to cook. Well, Colin Furze has a solution. The Play-A-Wave, a game console for bored chefs (no, not board chefs.)
Furze built an LCD screen is built into the door, which had to be modified with added shielding to prevent the screen from going all wonky when the microwave is on. Rather than building a console into the oven, he simply included audio and video ports on the front, and connected one of those cheap plug-and-play retro game systems.
The quality of the games leave something to be desired, but at least you won’t have to be bored and play with one of those stupid fidget spinners while you are waiting. This is a much better use of your time.
Just heat up that Hot Pocket or Hungry Man and play a game to pass the time.
Microsoft recently announced when its Xbox Game Pass service is going to be live. Think of it as Netflix for Xbox games. You pay a set subscription fee every month and get to download a wide variety of games from the library that continues to increase over time. The initial response appears to have been good as Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that early signs and feedback for the Xbox Game Pass service has been “really strong.”
Microsoft launched the Xbox Game Pass service for Xbox Live Gold members last week. They also get 14 day free trial so that they can try the service before they decide whether or not they want to spend their money on it.
All other Xbox owners who are not members of the Xbox Live Gold program will be able to sign up for the service starting June 1st.
Xbox Game Pass costs $9.99 per month and provides subscribers with access to more than 100 titles for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Microsoft will refresh the library on a monthly basis to ensure that there’s always something new for subscribers.
The library already includes some impressive titles, including but not limited to Halo 5 and Gears of War Ultimate Edition. More will be added down the line. If you’re not an Xbox Live Gold members, you have to wait until June 1st to sign up for the service.
@LordRutger @majornelson I’m glad you like it. Just the start but the early signups and feedback have been really strong, thanks for that.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) May 26, 2017
Xbox Game Pass Early Sign-Ups Have Been Strong , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Samsung has released a new app on the Google Play Store which enables owners of Galaxy smartphones to improve the audio experience on their handsets by tweaking a lot of different audio settings. The app enables users to control 150 steps of volume adjustment aside from EQ, mono, and stereo balancing. It even enables users to set individual volumes for different apps.
Samsung’s SoundAssistant app is even capable of altering hardware keys so users can control the media volume instead of the ringtone when they press volume keys. The app can be used to create and enable sound settings based on the user’s own preferences.
Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners can use the app to set a different audio output path for different apps, so they can route audio to a Bluetooth speaker for music and the phone’s loudspeaker for a game.
The SoundAssistant app comes with a feature called Scenarios. It can be used to configure volume levels and vibration modes for specific days and time periods. This eliminates the hassle for users to manually change the sound profile on the device for a recurring event, such as a weekly work meeting.
Samsung’s SoundAssistant app is available as a free download from the Google Play Store. It’s only compatible with the company’s Galaxy smartphones.
Samsung’s SoundAssistant App Improves Audio On Galaxy Smartphones , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
It seemed that after the lackluster standalone installment On Stranger Tides, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was finally over, having ended on a bad note after resurrecting the original, and decent enough, trilogy. That wasn’t the case, as everyone knows by now. The fifth and final installment, Dead Men Tell No Tales, arrived in theaters late last week to … Continue reading
Ireland is on the verge of a huge generational change in its political life with the likely election of Leo Varadkar as its next premier ― a move that would give the once-staunchly Catholic country its first openly gay leader and its first of Asian immigrant descent.
Varadkar has built a near insurmountable lead ahead of a contest next week to succeed Enda Kenny as leader of the governing Fine Gael and prime minister. At 38, he would also become the youngest person to hold the office.
Supporters are comparing the trained doctor to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and new French President Emmanuel Macron, hoping a straight-talker from the generation hit hardest by an economic meltdown a decade ago can transform the political landscape.
“I honestly don’t think in 1981 when I first got elected that I could foresee a time when an openly gay man might become Taoiseach (prime minister),” former Fine Gael deputy leader Nora Owen, who served as justice minister in the 1990s, told Reuters.
“We have come a long way and the fact that someone like Leo Varadkar, who is an openly gay man, living with his partner, can actually put himself forward for Taoiseach and nobody is batting an eyelid is wonderful and I think it’s a great day for Ireland that we can do that.”
The fact that such a milestone is barely mentioned in local media or raised in the leadership race demonstrates just how far the country of 4.6 million people that was long seen as one of the most socially conservative in Western Europe has come.
Having only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 and introduced divorce two years later, Ireland became the first country to adopt gay marriage via a popular vote in 2015, drawing overwhelming support from every corner of the country.
The vote marked a further ebbing of the church’s dominance in Irish society, which has been shattered over the past two decades by the uncovering of scandals of sex abuse by priests and cruelty at Catholic-run institutions.
His election would also show another face of modern-day Ireland.
Varadkar’s father Ashok, who is also a doctor, was born in Mumbai in India. He met Varadkar’s mother Miriam, a nurse and farmer’s daughter from the southern Irish county of Waterford, while working in England in the 1970s. They married there but decided to move to Ireland and raise their family in Dublin, where Varadkar was born.
Varadkar himself has played down the significance of his background and personal life.
“It’s not something that defines me. I’m not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter. It’s just part of who I am, it doesn’t define me, it is part of my character I suppose,” he told state broadcaster RTE in a 2015 interview when he said publicly for the first time that he was gay.
“POTENTIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE”
He has secured the publicly declared support of 46 of Fine Gael’s 73 lawmakers in the June 2 race to succeed Kenny. With lawmakers accounting for 65 percent of the selection vote, his opponent Simon Coveney needs a significant number to change their minds, which analysts say is highly unlikely.
Whoever takes over from Kenny’s 15 years at the helm, they will be the only leader in the Irish parliament born in the 1970s. When Kenny was first elected to the lower house in 1975, Coveney was 3-years-old and Varadkar was not even born.
Opinion polls show both are popular among Fine Gael members but that Varadkar has the potential to win a significant percentage of votes from other parties.
That appeal is down to the current social protection minister representing what political commentator Noel Whelan called “the most interesting story around the kitchen tables, water coolers and bar stools of Ireland” in a long time.
“I think Leo Varadkar becoming Taoiseach is potentially transformative for the electoral fortunes of Fine Gael and perhaps for the political system generally,” Whelan said.
“He is blunt, brash, direct but for those reasons, also more authentic. In an era of anti-politics he is one of the closest things to an anti-politician we have serving in politics. He excites parts of the electorate Fine Gael doesn’t usually reach.”
Whelan said Varadkar’s style will be tested by the office, not least through Ireland’s vulnerability to Brexit and its still constrained public finances that will limit his plans to provide the growing economy with better infrastructure.
But Fine Gael lawmakers, desperate to restore their lead over rivals Fianna Fail in opinion polls before a possible election next year, look set to take a calculated risk on a leader who they say voters like, regardless of their background.
“The people I have met who might be from more conservative rural backgrounds and who I thought wouldn’t really subscribe to Leo really like him,” said Brendan Griffin, a backbencher from the sourhern county Kerry.
“I was with a group of friends at the weekend and the first comment was imagine a Taoiseach in his 30s. The second was ‘and a son of an immigrant’ and it was only then that someone said ‘and gay as well’ People are amazed at how quickly the country has moved on.”
(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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Temperatures were in the 100s when Vanessa Dunn, a 29-year-old Los Angeles-based makeup artist, was driving back home to California from Virginia last summer. After hours on the road and drinking limited water, she was struck by a severe case of dehydration and heat stroke.
”I wasn’t drinking enough water because I didn’t want to stop to pee,” she says. When she finally pulled over for the night she felt light-headed, and she couldn’t keep food down when she tried to eat. She even threw up blood.
”I was in incredible pain, and dizzy,” she says. “[I went] to the ER, turned out there was blood because my throat was so dry.”
Her story is not unusual. In 2014, more than 13,000 people visited the emergency room because of a heat-related illness such as heat stroke, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. And on average, about 675 people die in the U.S. every year from heat-related illnesses.
Heat stroke is the most severe form of heat-related illness. It’s less common than other issues such as heat exhaustion (characterized by heavy sweating, weakness, cold, pale or clammy skin, fainting, a fast or weak pulse, and nausea or vomiting) or heat syncope (fainting). But heat stroke can happen quickly, to anyone, and can result in irreversible damage or death.
Heat stroke is an extreme elevation of your body temperature that occurs when your body stops being able to regulate itself, according to Dr. James Wantuck, chief medical officer at PlushCare, an online urgent care provider. “If a fever is like an infection turning up your body’s thermostat, heat stroke is like a broken air conditioner,” he says.
Your body does an expert job of keeping its temperature around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit under normal circumstances. When you’re in a hot environment, your body will regulate its temperature by “radiating heat into the air, driving your brain to find a cooler environment, and sweating to cause evaporation and cooling,” Wantuck says.
But, he adds, “radiating heat and finding cooler air don’t work when the temperature is higher than your body temperature, and sweating doesn’t work when the humidity is higher than about 75 percent — conditions that happen frequently in the summertime.”
That inability to cool down can cause a host of physiological events to occur. They include a raised heart rate, as the heart beats faster to eliminate heat in the body more quickly; inflammation resulting from heat-related cell damage; and the production of “heat-shock” proteins, which try to protect your cells from heat damage.
If cell damage does occur, it can affect enzyme function.
“Without normal enzyme function, your body’s ability to make energy becomes broken, leading to effects similar to cyanide poisoning [such as] multi-organ failure,” Wantuck says. “Your nervous system is the most sensitive to high heat, which is why confusion, incoordination and loss of consciousness are common symptoms of heat stroke.”
For anyone who you are worried may have heat stroke, getting them cooled and to an emergency room are the first priorities.
Dr. James Wantuck, chief medical officer at PlushCare
If you’re out in the sun or exercising on a hot day, look out for signs of heat stroke. They include: sweating profusely; feeling weak, lightheaded or confused; a rapid and strong pulse; headache; muscle and stomach cramps; flushed, pale, dry or clammy skin; or body temperature over 103 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you notice any of these symptoms in yourself or a friend, move to a cooler location immediately, remove excess clothing and try to cool down with cold cloths or even a cold bath.
”We recommend calling 911, and if they are young, placing the person into a water bath with ice,” Wantuck says. “If they are older, [use] ice packs and [pour] cold water on them. [Keep cooling them] until the person starts shivering, or about 15-20 minutes, and their symptoms have gone away.”
“For anyone who you are worried may have heat stroke, getting them cooled and to an emergency room are the first priorities,” he says.
To prevent heat stroke, Wantuck recommends seeking air conditioning on hot days — especially for older adults and those with medical conditions or taking medications that can disrupt that body’s ability to regulate its temperature. You should also stay hydrated, and avoid enclosed environments and layers of clothing.
For athletes of any stripe, Wantuck says to remove excess equipment (where possible), take frequent breaks and gradually build up a tolerance to heat.
For Dunn, having heat stroke was an eye-opener. “It was a really scary experience,” she says. She urges everyone she knows to stay hydrated on hot days. “I hope no one goes through [heat stroke].”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) ― Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is sailing into first place at the domestic box office this weekend, but the story the numbers dictate is not one of swashbuckling heroics.
Johnny Depp’s fifth outing as Jack Sparrow is looking at a three-day total of $62.2 million from 4,276 locations, and a four-day holiday weekend sum of $77 million. If not for international appeal, that would be a let down for a movie riding on a $230 million production budget.
The first place finish also can’t cover up a serious case of franchise fatigue. “Dead Men Tell No Tales” is the lowest opening for a Pirates movie apart from the original, which earned over $46 million in its first weekend (and was also the only installation approved by critics). Last time out in 2011, “On Stranger Tides” pulled in $90 million in its opening weekend. That’s still less than 2007’s “At World’s End” ($114.7 million) and 2006’s “Dead Man’s Chest” ($135.6 million). But it’s no question why Disney is still churning out sequels ― combined, the movies have made $1.3 billion domestically and $3.8 billion worldwide.
“Dead Men Tell No Tales” centers on Sparrow battling deadly ghost sailors, led by the Javier Bardem’s Captain Salazar. Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg directed the film, which also sees the return of both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, who were absent from the fourth installment.
Over time the “Pirates” franchise has become more reliant on overseas ticket sales, and that’s certainly the case this time out. The studio should make back its production budget this weekend once worldwide ticket sales are taken into account. Since the franchise still makes money (even if U.S. grosses are dwindling) this may not be the last we see of Captain Sparrow.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s “Baywatch” was hoping to make an oceanic summer splash, but looks to have ended up in the kiddie pool. The rebooted property should land a three-day total of $18.1 million from 3,647 locations and end the four-day holiday weekend with $22 million. That’s far below early estimates. The movie carries a $60 million production budget.
This is the latest in a string of misses for the studio this year including “Ghost in the Shell,” “Rings,” “XXX: The Return of Xander Cage” and “Monster Trucks.”
Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron star in the comedy that spawned from the 1990s NBC drama starring David Hasselhoff and a team of lifeguards who patrolled the beaches of Los Angeles. This time around it’s Johnson, an experienced and devoted lifeguard, who butts heads with a new recruit, Efron, until they uncover a criminal plot.
Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario, Jon Bass, Kelly Rohrbach and Ilfenesh Hadera also star. Seth Gordon directed the film based on a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Thomas Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant all have story credits.
“Baywatch” will land in third behind Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” which has proven to be the only major hit to emerge from the summer box office so far. The sequel looks to pull in another $24.2 million over the four-day weekend, raising its domestic total close to $340 million.
Fox’s “Alien: Covenant” should end up in fourth during its second weekend in theaters. The latest installment in the Alien franchise is looking at $13.1 million over the four-day stretch. Rounding out the top five, the YA adaptation “Everything, Everything” looks to have been a solid low-budget investment for Warner Bros. Its four day total should be about $7.6 million.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
We already knew from Google I/O that ASUS’ ZenFone AR, the second-ever Tango phone (and the first to also support Daydream), was getting close to its official launch, and that it’s coming to the US as a Verizon exclusive this summer. Thankfully, we n…
Remember Zenbo, the cute humanoid robot that stole the show at Asus’ Computex press conference last year? Zenbo was absent from the stage this year, as were ZenFones. Instead, in an unusual departure for the event, which took place today in Taipei, Taiwan, the focus was solely on Asus’ new laptops, with the spotlight shining on the newest additions to its ZenBook line: the ZenBook… Read More
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