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The Big Picture: Boeing 787-9 performs extreme maneuvers at Farnborough
Boeing's original Dreamliner may be old news by now, but a longer variant -- the 787-9 -- is about to enter passenger service with Air New Zealand. That extended aircraft is also on display for would-be airline customers this week at the Farnborough Airshow, just south of London. With a very light load on board, Boeing's able to show off its latest plane with some extreme maneuvers, including steep takeoffs and high-bank turns just feet off the ground. The moves may make you uneasy, but they're designed to demonstrate the aircraft's flexibility -- you won't experience any of these intense angles on a commercial flight, but you can get a feel for what the new 787 can do in the video after the break. [Photo credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
The Big Picture: A Robot writing the Torah in longhand
A robot arm in the Berlin Jewish Museum is hard at work, carefully inking thousands of Hebrew letters on an 80-meter (260-foot) scroll. In about three months, it will have transcribed the entire Torah "by hand," a process that normally takes Jewish scribes about a year. The robot's penmanship is delicate and exact, but its work is merely an exhibit: the completed work won't be considered holy. "In order for the Torah to be holy, it has to be written with a goose feather on parchment," explains Rabbi Reuven Yaacobov. "The process has to be filled with meaning, and I'm saying prayers while I'm writing it." Yaacobov and the Robot are part of "The Creation of the World," a new exhibit at the museum that highlights the significance of Hebrew handwriting. Yaacobov is on hand to show patrons how the Torah is written traditionally, and to explain the religious significance of the process. The human element will only be on site until August 3rd, but his robotic companion will be writing Hebrew scriptures until January of next year. [Image credit: Adam Berry, Getty Images]
Xi3 starts Piston pre-orders: buy an early Steambox for under $1,000
While Xi3's Piston may only be a Steambox through its software optimization, that still leaves us with a milestone on our hands now that the system is available for pre-orders: it's the first Valve-blessed PC on sale. If you're willing to set aside just under $1,000 ($900 during SXSW), you can claim a Big Picture-friendly mini PC with an embedded, 3.2GHz version of AMD's quad-core A10 in addition to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive. There's no mention of the conventional spinning storage referenced at CES. Expansion is limited to larger-capacity SSDs, although that's not surprising when the entire computer is smaller than a GeForce GTX Titan. The real jolt will be the launch timing. Xi3 won't have Pistons shipping until around the holidays, which could leave some of us hunting for less-than-official (if considerably larger) substitutes for the full Steam experience.
Gabe Newell hints at possible 'turnkey' Valve living room system, sees others following suit
Valve has been making a visibly deep push into the living room, but in bits and pieces -- controllers here, Big Picture interfaces there. Company chief Gabe Newell may have just hinted at a more holistic, though non-exclusive, approach in the works. Chatting on the sidelines of the Video Game Awards, he tells Kotaku that any Valve hardware would involve a "turnkey solution" with a "very controlled" environment, not unlike a console. While that's not necessarily the confirmation of the rumored Steam Box, Newell only stokes the speculation further through his eagerness to put Big Picture on Steam for Linux and get that much more control when building hardware. The game developer doesn't see his company monopolizing couch-based devices should it get involved, however -- he predicts more companies will be selling PCs in 2013 tailored for the TV in a way that would favor Steam. We won't consider either a Valve-made gaming box or its third-party equivalents to be imminent based solely on award show banter, but the remarks suggest that at least one of the PCs is more than just a dream.
Steam Big Picture beta hands-on
Been keeping up with Steam's Big Picture interface? Then you probably know it's already in beta. The 10-foot UI hopes to help Valve's content distribution portal get comfortable in front of your couch, offering gamers access to their favorite PC titles from a gamepad-friendly interface. We piped the beta out to our own living room to take a look, and weren't surprised to find a sleek attractive UI with a heap of polish. That said, we were glad we didn't leave our mouse and keyboard at the office.
Valve launching Steam Big Picture Mode later today, look at its snappy UI right now (update: it's live!)
As rumored, Valve's bringing its digital distribution gaming portal to televisions today with Steam "Big Picture Mode." Kotaku confirms the news this morning that the TV-friendly version of Steam will launch "later today," alongside a slurry of screenshots and impressions. Beyond what we already know about the service -- it's the full Steam we already know and love, albeit with controller-based input -- a variety of new details abound. A built-in web browser, for one, and a new form of text input for controllers which seems to massively trump the usually QWERTY setup. The entire store is apparently navigable via controller (though mouse and keyboard still work, if that's your kinda thing), and you can even prioritize games based on what's workable with a gamepad. Does this mean that the long-rumored "Steambox" is headed to living rooms soon? Not so fast, says Valve. "We really don't have a road map. And we think we're going to learn a tremendous amount through this first release." Big Picture Mode's beta is PC-only for now, but a Mac version is promised as coming "soon." Update: Users can now opt-in to test the mode and download a beta version of Steam. Hit the second source link below to get started. [Thanks, Yannick]
NYT: Steam's Big Picture public beta begins Monday
Can't wait to use Steam's forthcoming Big Picture mode to game from the comfort of your couch? Well, you're in luck, because it might be ready for a test drive tomorrow. According to The New York Times, the living room-friendly user interface is getting the public beta treatment starting Monday. Gabe Newell let loose last month that both the TV-geared view and Steam for Linux betas would be "out there fairly quickly," but there's still no word on when the Ubuntu-bound preview will land. In the meantime, we'll keep busy by gawking at Valve's augmented reality headset, which the NYT got a glimpse of during a trip to the firm's headquarters, at the source link below.
Steam to debut Big Picture beta soon, make couch potatoes of PC gamers
Early last year, Valve mentioned it was working on something called Big Picture mode for Steam, an alternative user interface with controller support designed specifically for use on televisions. According to Gabe Newell, the distribution services' couch-ready UI is almost upon us. "We should have both Linux and 10-foot betas out there fairly quickly," he told Geoff Keighley in the latest episode of GTTV, noting that the interface would be available on both the current iteration of Steam and the upcoming Linux version. Newell said that Valve has been showing the interface to hardware manufacturers, but ultimately feels that the community will decide its fate. "I think customers will say 'this is really great,' or they'll say it's another interesting but not a valuable contribution, fairly quickly." Check out the interview for yourself (and the full episode) after the break.
Boston.com launches Big Picture iPad app, where it finally feels at home
No shame in saying it -- we're huge, huge fans of Boston's 'Big Picture' blog. Regardless of the subject matter, the photographs gathered there never fail to speak to something a little deeper within our souls, and now viewing them just because a wee bit easier. The portal has today launched a new version of their 'Big Picture' app that's fully compatible with the iPad, enabling Apple tablet owners to see new photographic essays on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. Unfortunately, the app costs $2.99 (where it's free to surf on over to the website), and the current crop of reviews are less than glowing. Might we suggest waiting a tick to see if those early issues are ironed out in a subsequent release?
