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ABC News introduces VR initiative with 360-degree tour of Syria
ABC News is experimenting with immersive journalism. On last night's episode of their news program, Nightline, viewers had the option to watch an accompanying 360-degree video piece on their mobile phones or computers. The in-depth story, by reporter Alexander Marquardt, took viewers on a virtual journey through Damascus, Syria, where curators are struggling to protect the country's antiquities from destruction. The network collaborated with Jaunt VR, a California-based studio that creates live-action virtual reality experiences, to produce the video that was shot on a special 16-camera device.
Mobiado 105 Damascus handled on video, which is the closest you'll ever get to one
Mobiado's 105 series of Series 40-based luxury candybars is nothing new -- in fact, it's quite old -- but as Vertu has discovered over the years, customers that are looking to spend four or five figures on a phone are apparently often uninterested in smartphone capability for some reason. On that note, the 105 rolls on with the recent introduction of the 105 Damascus, coated in hand-forged Damascus steel from Sweden with sandblasted (or rather, glass bead-blasted) steel buttons and screws to match. That's neat, but you know what isn't neat? The 2 megapixel camera, the 2-inch display, or the "more than" 1GB of memory available. Anyhow, enough venting -- point is, the recently-announced device has gotten a little hands-on time courtesy of Vietnamese site MaiNguyen, and though the steel edges are admittedly pretty beautiful, they wouldn't seem to come anywhere near justifying the phone's heart-stopping $4,500 asking price. Judge for yourself in the video (paired with a hands-on of some neat Damascus steel pen) after the break.
Vertu's Ascent Ti Damascus Steel makes being wealthy slightly more stylish
Stainless steel's great, but there's a very simple problem with the alloy that's plagued mankind for hundreds of years: it doesn't have any pattern on it. Happily, that's easily solved with a quick trip to Vertu's British headquarters, where master craftsmen are hard at work hand-carving designs into exactly 100 copies of the company's new Ascent Ti Damascus Steel -- just the latest in a long line of five-figure handsets with two-figure functionality. Yes, true, the Ascent Ti series features 3G, but even that isn't enough to justify the kidneys and other organs you'll have to sell (or the pittance you'll have to withdraw from the trust fund, depending on your lifestyle) to become the proud owner of one of these. Is it seriously time to upgrade the Ferrari version already?
Damascus next Oregon town to receive FiOS TV
You downtown Portland residents must be cringing right now. Shortly after Happy Valley received word that FiOS TV was on the way, yet another locale on the outskirts of town is getting the same notification. Damascus is one step closer to having yet another option when it comes to programming, as the City Council voted to grant Verizon a cable franchise just this week. At this rate, the entire city of Portland will be surrounded with this stuff in a matter of months, but we all know how Verizon is about infiltrating actual metropolises.
48000 more Portland-area homes getting FiOS services
Right before our very eyes, Portland, Oregon is quickly becoming a mecca of all things HD (not really, but you get the idea). Not even a full month after we learned that FiOS TV was coming to the area and its local NBC affiliate started newscasting in high-def, Verizon has now announced that some 48,000 more homes in the Portland Metro area will soon have access to FiOS. You heard right -- hordes of domiciles in the communities of Beaverton, Sunnyside / Damascus, McMinnville, Forest Grove, Gresham, Tigard, Tualatin and Camas / Washougal can look forward to receiving access to FiOS TV and high-speed internet. No word on a launch date for any of the aforementioned locales, but hold tight, VZW is blazing a path to those areas as we speak.
