Hasta La Gadget!

The rise of social media networks and services have made it very easy for people to reach out and be heard. But a new iOS app called Cloak uses these very services for the opposite effect. Cloak taps into location data from the people you follow on Instagram and Foursquare. You can then flag those people and Cloak will alert you if they’re nearby. You’ll know when you need to relocate, hide or wrap up your heist.

Cloak is free for iOS devices. I wasn’t able to test it because I’m one step ahead – I don’t have a Foursquare or an Instagram account. But I think it’s worth noting because it’s a funny way of usurping social media. It would be even funnier if someone made an app that will help you stay away from Cloak users. You can call it Buzzkill.

[via Incredible Things]

This article was written on March 28, 2006 by CyberNet.

If you are going to be creating a new site soon, then here are some great templates that you can use for starting. These templates are very well put together and they have a ton of them to choose from. Some of the templates also come with multiple files so that you can choose which arrangement you like the best (like the placement of the navigation bar).

The link below will take you to the gallery with the most downloaded templates first. Now you can have a professional looking site with only a fraction of the work!

Open Web Design — Templates

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

If 13th Lab has its way, you could soon be playing first-person games using your surroundings as a battlefield. Or a space station, a temple and anything else you can imagine. The computer vision company is working on Rescape, an FPS platform for mobile devices that can scan and digitize your environment, turning it into a video game map.

13th Lab uses a robotics technique called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). With the help of cameras and sensors, SLAM allows a device to make a map of its environment and place itself – i.e. know its location – within the map that it just made. The end result is shown in the image above. If you look closely you can see that the iPhone is showing a virtual equivalent of the player’s environment – everything from the structures, objects and even other players. 13th Lab calls this mix of augmented and virtual reality Reality Gaming.

As of now, a Rescape package includes a 180º fisheye lens and an adjustable gun controller with a trigger and a d-pad. To drive costs down and make it easier for app developers to port their FPS games, Rescape will make use of your mobile device to map and digitize your environment, as well as track your position.

The Rescape software development kit (SDK) handles the mapping feature, as well as the ability to digitally paint over a map and turn it into your battle ground of choice. I don’t know if the SDK will be simple enough for normal folks to understand and use though.  As I mentioned, mobile game developers can port existing FPS games into the Rescape platform, but that’s not as fun as turning your house or university into a game map.

Pledge at least $39 (USD) on Kickstarter to get the Rescape controller and Office Defender, the game shown in the video. Pledge at least $129 and you get the controller, the game and the Rescape SDK. When it launches Rescape will only support the iPhone 5, 5C and 5S, with “experimental support” for the iPhone 4S. 13th Lab promises that it will provide support for Android devices within a few months after the launch.

[via InStash]

This article was written on June 02, 2006 by CyberNet.

Microsoft is going to be feeling the wrath of Adobe because of the “Save As PDF” feature found in Office 2007 Beta (screenshot to the right). Adobe said that Microsoft can either remove the feature completely or they can charge people extra for the added feature. Aren’t we already going to be paying enough to get that feature? Isn’t the cost of Office 2007 going to be $600+?

What makes this even better is that OpenOffice has had a “Save As PDF” feature since 2003! I am sure that is part of the reason Microsoft really wanted to get this functionality integrated into Office. Not only that but Microsoft said that PDF functionality in Office is the second most requested feature.

So what’s going to come next? Microsoft plans to remove the functionality from Office and make it available as a free download to customers. Here we go again…Microsoft releases new products and other companies complain.

News Source: CNet

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This week at GDC 2014, NVIDIA announced that they were working with Respawn Entertainment to bring on a number of GameWorks-centric enhancements to Titanfall in the immediate future. While many … Continue reading