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JBL adds Google Assistant to its Everest line of headphones
Samsung-owned Harman International just announced three new models for its JBL Everest line of wireless headphones. The over-ear 710GA, on-ear 310GA and in-ear 110GA all include Google Assistant (hence the GA designation), giving you voice control over your music, phone calls and notifications. All three models will be available this spring for $250, $200 and $100, respectively.
Sports Illustrated captured a full Mount Everest climb in VR
Thanks to virtual reality, viewers have the opportunity to visit places they would like never have the chance to see in real life. Sports Illustrated and Endemol are teaming up for another one of those VR experiences and it's set to debut next year. The duo will document what Time, Inc. (SI's parent company) is calling "first-ever bottom to top climb of Mount Everest in virtual reality."
The brain hacks that make climbing in VR feel real
When I talk to friends and family about VR, their most pressing questions are usually about immersion. Once they've finished asking about the possibility of vomiting, the conversation turns to: "And how real does it feel?" "Do you believe you're really there?" Truth be told, I've never had that sensation -- a complete and utter submission of my senses -- although developers are getting better at tricking my brain for a few fleeting moments.
'Everest VR' will take gamers up a CGI mountain next year
Along with a "mobile supercomputer," NVIDIA dropped off this teaser for Everest VR at its event earlier this week. Made by Sólfar Studios and RVX, it used NVIDIA's GPU to mash up over 300,000 high res pictures of the mountain range to create a 3D mesh and textures that is claimed to be the "definitive" CGI model of Everest. Some of Sólfar's personnel come from CCP where they worked on EVE Online, but this new company is all about creating purely VR experiences, like Everest for PCs and Godling for Playstation VR. I'm not going to climb Everest to find out exactly how realistic the simulation is, but everyone can form their own opinion when the full experience is available next year.
Wargaming fans celebrate World of Warplanes launch from a mountain, for some reason
Seven World of Warplanes fans have combined their love of digital high altitude acrobatics and actual, real-life high altitude adventuring to celebrate the game's recent launch. The team trekked into the Himalayas reaching altitudes as high as 5,000 meters, stopping for World of Warplanes breaks along the way. Although it's not the first time we've climbed in the Himalayas, this expedition has been an amazing and special journey for us all. We've broken several new trails, which was a hard, but satisfying, experience. On our way upward, we stop to get some rest and play World of Warplanes. The team planted a World of Warplanes flag on one of the peaks, which we assume means Wargaming now owns Mount Everest. [Source: Wargaming press release]
Daily iPhone App: Everest is a beautiful and effective goal-tracking app
Everest is more than just your typical goal tracking app with a calendar and a fancy to-do list. It's a goal tracker that is part life-logger and part social network. It's designed to help you focus on a goal and achieve it along with the help of others. When you launch Everest for the first time, you are prompted to create a login so you can track your progress and share with other Everest members. Once the technical stuff is out of the way, you can add a dream or goal that you want to reach. The initial setup is straightforward and easy. All you have to type in is your goal and and set its visibility to private or public, depending on how social you want to be. Hit save, and you are ready to start taking steps towards achieving your goal. Steps towards your goal can be added as you need them. Conveniently, each one includes a repeating reminder so you don't forget to do them on a regular basis. As you progress towards your goal, you can add new steps and check them off as completed. Everest will track your progress and display your achievements front and center in the app. If you are the social type, you can follow other people and encourage them along the way. You can also receive encouragement if you share your dreams with the community. The app has a pleasing UI that's intuitive and easy to use. It only took me a few minutes to set up my goals, and add some steps. Then I was free to browse through the goals of other Everest users. This simplicity is a major bonus for Everest as ease-of-use is critical to a goal tracking app. Achieving a lofty goal is hard enough, you don't need an app to make it even more difficult. Everest is available for free from the iOS App Store. Everest is perfect for people who want to do some goal planning, especially they could use some support from other goal-oriented people.
Microsoft and GlacierWorks team up to bring Everest to your screen
GlacierWorks, founded by renowned mountaineer David Breashears, has joined forces with Internet Explorer to put the world's highest peak at your fingertips with Everest: Rivers of Ice. The exploration platform works in any browser, but it's specifically optimized for IE 10's touch-based technology. In addition to bringing the Himalayas to your screen, Microsoft is using the project to show off the potentiality of its Rich Interactive Narratives (RIN) interface, cooked up by the the teams at Microsoft Research in both India and Redmond. Using RIN, developers can design nonlinear narratives that weave together different types of multimedia, like multitouch interactive maps with embedded video, gigapixel panoramas and data visualizations. GlacierWorks' project incorporates all of these, as it allows you to explore Everest's valleys while learning about glacier activity and climate change in the Himalayas. If a trip to Nepal is out of your budget, you can watch a preview in the video after the break.
DayZ mastermind conquers Everest, is back in the studio
DayZ creator Dean Hall hasn't forgotten about finishing the standalone game, or how much you want to play it – but he was giving you the cold shoulder last week. On May 21, Hall reached the top of Mt. Everest, according to a picture tweeted on May 24. He's now made it safely down the mountain and is back in the studio, working on DayZ. Hall said a dev blog with the latest updates will go live when the team has time. There's still no word on a release date for DayZ, and the public alpha is scheduled for June, at the earliest.
OCZ Octane SSD benchmarked, new Indilinx controller holds its ground
Maybe it's just interference from our seasonal goggles, but isn't there something quite cheery about SSD reviews? In the case of OCZ's Octane drive, our good spirits derive from the sturdy performance of its freshly-conceived Indilinx Everest controller, which ought to keep big players like SandForce and Samsung on their toes. HotHardware just reviewed the $369 $879 512GB variant and found that it delivered fast boot-up times, strong read speeds and writes that were just shy of enthusiast-class drives. Follow the source link for the full and possibly festive benchmarks. Update: Sorry about the optimistic price error. Guess we got carried away with all the holiday discounts. As many of y'all spotted, it's the 256GB version that goes for $369. Update: We just added links to reviews from AnandTech and Storage Review, which both arrived at similarly positive conclusions.
Motorola's 10-inch Honeycomb tablet meets Mr. Blurrycam, shows off Verizon logo
By now you're probably familiar with this slate, seeing as how Google's Andy Rubin recently unveiled it on stage, but we're willing to bet you've never seen the top edge -- you know, the part now bearing a front-facing webcam and a conspicuous Verizon tattoo. Yes, this is Motorola's 10-inch Honeycomb tablet, and it's playing for Team Red just as foretold, though the tipster who obtained these images isn't sure whether it will bear the name Stingray, Everest or even potentially "Trygon." Spec-wise, we're told our previous tipster was right on the money, and it'll have a 1GHz Tegra 2 T20, a gyroscope and 32GB of storage underneath that 1280 x 800 multitouch screen, as well as 512MB of RAM and a slot for an up-to-32GB microSD card. It also sure looks like there's a micro-USB jack, a mini-HDMI port and a 3.5mm headphone socket, as well as some contacts for a likely dock, though as always Mr. Blurrycam's handiwork is such that we can't quite tell. No matter -- see for yourself in the gallery below. Update: What's that button on the back of the unit, right next to the speaker and dual LED flash? Why, it's the power toggle, of course. %Gallery-110407% [Thanks, wnrussell]
Glacier's E4000 tablet is durable enough for your warehouse, portable enough for your fleet
A hard day's work often means dirty hands, and dirty hands and keyboards have a long history of not getting along together. Rugged tablets tend to be a somewhat better (or at least easier to clean) solution, the latest entry being Glacier Computer's Everest E4000, a fully integrated device available in 10-, 12-, and 15-inch sizes running your choice of XP Pro, XP Embedded, or Linux. No details are available on what hardware is lurking inside that purposeful looking case, which isn't the most attractive thing we've ever seen, but certainly seems a lot more durable than some of its competition -- like you could back an 18-wheeler over it and then cozy up with for a nice game of touchscreen 'Solitare' while waiting for your invoices to print. Not that you'd ever play games while on the clock, of course.Update: We got some further details about this brute to pass along. It maxes out at a 1.4GHz Pentium M with 1GB of memory and a 16GB SSD, which may not sound like much, but since it's entirely sealed cooling anything faster would be something of a challenge. The 15-inch screen is 1024 x 768, 802.11a/b/g is supported, and you can get one to mount on your forklift for between $2,500 and $4,500 -- forklift not included.
China Mobile gives Huawei the nod to build cell tower on Mount Everest
China Mobile has awarded Huawei the contract to build a Solar Powered GSM base station on Mount Everest. Planted at 6,500 meters, the tower will supply network coverage for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay Team, mountaineers, and beautify a pretty drab landscape. Apparently the tower will be using satellite to communicate with the outside world, though with solar power driving it, we wonder how it'll do when an extended storm blows in. So if you happen to find yourself on Everest in the coming months, feel free to drop us a picture message featuring some high altitude shenanigans.
World's highest cellphone call made with Motorola Z8
He did it, British climber Rod Baber made a cell mobile phone (apparently using a MOTORIZR Z8, not a satellite phone) call from the top of Mount Everest. In fact, he made the record breaking call twice: the first to a voice mail account, the other to his wife and children. He even sent a text message to Moto which read, "One small text for man, one giant leap for mobilekind - thanks Motorola." Real cute, Rod. The Motorola sponsored "world record" was made possible by a Chinese mobile base station installed with a line of sight to the north ridge. Officially, the calls were made at 29,035 feet (about 8,848 meters) in temperatures of -22 degress fahrenheit (-30 degrees centigrade) -- so cold that Rob had to tape the batteries to his body just to keep them active. We're not sure where he stored the banana-shaped Z8. Of course, anyone who has ever made a call from a commercial aircraft (hey, it happens) knows that it's really not a record, but who are we to argue with Guinness?[Via BBC, thanks Mook]
Oxygen deprivation and iPod hatred
Climbing the tallest mountain on earth is no small feat, and is certainly something to be proud of, but it's not without its risks; most of which stem from the extremely low Oxygen content in the air in "The Death Zone" above 22,000 ft. Unfortunately, it seems that Neal Muller, a grad student at UPenn's Wharton School succumbed to this lack of O2 and lost some brain cells on the way down. Muller whines in a Washington Post article that he was unable to triumphantly mount the top of the world to to soundtrack of Van Halen, because his iPod died during the climb. Now, my first reaction to this is utter speechlessness, followed by anger and depression about the state of the human race. I won't address Muller's arguments here, as Dan over at Mac User has done a tremendous job of that, but I will outline some of his arguments and their flaws. Muller complains that the hard drive failed; almost 20,000ft above its designed maximum operating altitude, and likely 50 degrees below its minimum operating temperature. He complains that because the iPod doesn't use an "open connection standard," it suffers from a lack of accessories; I suppose that just over 3000 iPod specific accessories isn't really that much compared with... wait... no, thats actually a lot. Argues that the iPod is a "flash-in-the-pan": I guess 85% market share and 5 years of growth don't count for much. In addition to contradicting with evidence every single one of this morons arguments, Dan poses a really great question; what the hell was this guy doing listening to his iPod on Everest? When you're doing something which kills as many people as summiting Everest does, you should probably be paying attention to your surroundings instead of worrying about how many stars to give the currently playing track. It's really sad to see that some people really are so stupid as to make these kinds of arguments, and disappointing that the WP would post such drivel. In any case, check it out, if only to laugh at this guys utter clueless-ness.
