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Samsung's Olympic Galaxy Note 8 isn't for sale, but I wish it was
In addition to the honor of representing their homelands, this year's Winter Olympic athletes will also receive something else: a limited-edition Galaxy Note 8. Unlike Samsung's first Olympic phone, though, it's unlikely that this version will ever go on sale to the public. To own one, you have to be a world-class athlete or an Olympic staff member whose job is to support world-class athletes. To play with one, though, you just have to write things on the internet, so here we are.
Top female player wins Olympics-backed 'StarCraft 2' tournament
Sasha 'Scarlett' Hostyn is one of the most skilled and successful women in eSports, and she just won a major StarCraft 2 tournament. Not just any competition, either: An Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) tournament was held in Pyeongchang ahead of this weekend's Winter Olympics and, most importantly, is the first competition backed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In other words, as Polygon pointed out, Scarlett became the first female winner of a big international StarCraft 2 tournament, which itself is a promising foray in eSports and Olympic collaboration.
Hulu adds 60fps support for select live TV channels
Just a few days after Hulu added a new way for sports fans to customize their Olympic coverage, the company is back with another bit of news for sports fans. Subscribers to Hulu's live TV service will be able to watch their favorite games at 60 frames per second (fps) on select channels. The higher frame rate, common on video game platforms, will help you follow the quick action in broadcasts like March Madness and the Winter Olympics. "This was one of the most-requested features by our viewers," the company wrote in a Reddit announcement.
DirecTV offers 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos for Winter Olympics replays
Comcast and Hulu may have already revealed plans for Winter Olympics coverage, but today, DirecTV is letting us in on what it has in store for the next several days. In addition to the regular prime time coverage anyone with access to NBC's family of networks is privy to, the AT&T-owned company has a few other things up its sleeve to enhance your viewing experience. We're talking 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos, for starters, when the festivities kick off this Thursday.
A US Paralympian designed Team USA's snowboard prosthetics
Mike Schultz was a professional snowmobile racer, and a damn good one at that. But in 2008, his life's course took a turn after a competition accident shattered his left knee and left him clinging to life. When his injuries began causing his kidneys to shut down, doctors decided to amputate the leg just above the knee.
Samsung releases the official 2018 Winter Olympics app
If you're an Olympics nerd, then take note: Samsung has released the official app of the PyeongChang 2018 games. It's ready for download now in the App Store and Google Play Store. The app is available in Korean, English, French, Japanese and Chinese (it's not clear whether this means Mandarin, Cantonese or both).
VR helps US Olympic ski and snowboard teams prep for South Korea
When skiers and snowboarders prepare for a competition, they often have incredibly limited access to their race routes ahead of time. But the US ski and snowboard team is doing things a little differently than it has in the past, using VR to review routes multiple times before competing. It's working with a company called STRIVR, which has developed VR training programs for professional sports teams, college sports teams and even companies like Walmart, Visa and Lowe's. Now, STRIVR is helping US Ski & Snowboard prepare for competitions like the World Cup and the upcoming Olympic Games by letting the team relive particular routes in VR.
Xfinity customers will get a ton of Winter Olympics content next month
The Olympics offer a unique technical challenge for TV broadcasters and cable companies every few years. With the 2018 Winter Olympics just a few weeks away, Comcast has announced its plans to offer a pretty huge variety of coverage for its Xfinity TV subscribers. While other cable providers get access to the same content from NBC that Comcast does, the company is enabling some solid features and packaging it in ways that are exclusive to Xfinity subscribers.
NBC brings two Winter Olympics preview shows to Netflix
You won't have to stay glued to NBC to watch all of its Winter Olympics coverage -- although it won't necessarily be the coverage you want. The network is offering a two-part PyeongChang preview series, Go For the Gold and Meet Team USA, that will be available on Netflix between January 15th and the end of the Olympics on February 25th. The episodes will explore the American team's athletes and their stories, including well-known competitors like Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White.
Samsung SmartSuits help speed skaters train for the Winter Olympics
Samsung has never been quiet about promoting its partnerships with the Olympics (which extends to the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea), but now it's trying out new gadgets in the sports world. The company's Netherlands branch is sponsoring two Dutch short track racers and equipping them with SmartSuits -- a new sensor-packed outfit intended to augment their training.
Olympic organizers may use facial recognition to manage guests
Japan is looking for a different way to confirm the identity of the hundreds of thousands of athletes, officials and journalists who will be attending the 2020 Olympics. The Japan Times reports that sources close to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organizing committee say organizers are planning to utilize facial recognition technology. Not including spectators, attendees are expected to number in the 300,000 to 400,000 range and officials are concerned that ID sharing or theft will reduce the Games' safety. Facial recognition technology could get around those issues while also reducing entrance waiting times.
A humanoid robot carried the Olympic torch in South Korea
One of the traditions of the Olympics is the torch relay, in which people carry the flame from Olympia, Greece to the location of the Games. In 2018, the Olympic Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the torch relay is currently underway. Earlier this week, the HUBO, the humanoid robot, carried the flame for part of its journey.
Russian Twitter bots are reportedly helping #NoRussiaNoGames push
It's both terrifying and fascinating how well Russia uses Twitter to influence the perception of world events. Operatives from the country have supported Trump and Brexit and positioned propaganda that was eventually shared by major news outlets. Now it seems that Russian propagandists are hard at work amplifying an actual hashtag campaign (#NoRussiaNoGames) against the ban of Russian athletes from the upcoming Olympic games.
Visa swaps payment cards for NFC gloves at the Winter Olympics
Visa is very fond of showing off its tap-to-pay technology at the Olympics, and that's truer than ever with the 2018 Winter Olympics around the corner. The payment giant is selling a trio of NFC-equipped gadgets to help you shop at the PyeongChang games, most notably a set of winter gloves. Yes, you can pay for that souvenir without freezing your hands as you reach for a credit card or even your phone. You won't have to use them or the other devices at the games, but they'll come with prepaid values of between 30,000KRW to 50,000KRW ($27 to $45) to encourage shopping in South Korea. Visa hasn't offered pricing.
BBC to stream 1,000 extra hours of live sport each year
The BBC continues to reduce the amount of public money it spends, it's led to some notable sporting events being cut from its programming. It's already been forced to drop the rights to big-name British golfing tournaments, Formula 1 and perhaps the most prestigious global sporting event of all: the Olympics (although it has since agreed a sub-licencing deal with Discovery-owned Eurosport). Instead, the corporation has focused on sports that it believes are most valuable to licence fee payers, including Wimbledon tennis and Six Nations rugby. Expanding that commitment, the BBC today announced "its biggest increase of live sport in a generation," confirming that will add 1,000 extra hours of live sport to the BBC Sport and iPlayer websites each year.
Snapchat will offer European users exclusive Olympics content
Snap is clearly hungry for original and exclusive web content for Snapchat's Discover platform. Yesterday, the company announced it was forming a studio in partnership with NBCUniversal. Then, this morning, Snap revealed that it's partnering with Eurosport, which is owned by Discovery Communications, to bring exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the Olympics Winter Games, which will be held in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018. This content appears to be limited to Snapchat's European users.
Overwatch's Summer Games event returns on August 8th
In the 14 months since Overwatch hit the shelves, Blizzard has worked tirelessly to keep a steady stream of fresh content coming. New maps and characters appear every so often, as do seasonal events, which deliver themed game modes that replace normal loot box items with exclusive personalizations. Summer Games was the first to introduce the concept, launching just days before the 2016 Olympics commenced in Rio.
The high-tech war on Tibetan communication
Each year, March 10th in Tibet brings more police onto the streets, closer online censorship of terms like "Free Tibet" and "Dalai Lama" and a spate of cyberattacks. "Every March 10th, almost all major Tibetan organizations in Dharamsala are targeted with Distributed Denial of Service and other cyber attacks," said Tenzin Dalha, a researcher at the Tibet Policy Institute, part of the Central Tibetan Administration. Four years ago, that happened to the Voice of Tibet (VOT), a nonprofit media outlet run out of the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, bringing its website down for several days. The reason for the crackdown is that the date commemorates March 10th, 1959. On that day, rumors spread in the Tibetan capital Lhasa about the impending arrest of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, by the Chinese, who had invaded the territory in 1950. Tibetans rallied to support their spiritual leader and the mass protests led to a violent crackdown. The Dalai Lama and his entourage escaped to India, where he and the Tibetan government-in-exile remain. When VOT started in 1996, it was one of the few channels of communication between Tibetans and their government-in-exile across the border, as all newspapers, television and other print materials were heavily censored. Using shortwave radio, it transmitted its news service across the border into Chinese-occupied Tibet, both in Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese.
Intel puts VR to work for more immersive coverage of the Olympics
Intel is teaming up with the International Olympic Committee on "future experiences" for the Olympics, the chip maker announced today at an event in New York City. The new partnership, which will run through the 2024 games, is set to focus on tech like virtual reality, 5G connectivity and drones. According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, the idea is to use these technologies to help athletes, coaches and, of course, fans, including those who will be watching the summer or winter Olympics from home. For example, Krzanich says that Intel is going to set up a 5G network at the 2018 games, while its True VR platform will let fans watch events in 360-degree video.
Ubisoft's 'Steep' will soon take you to the 2018 Winter Olympics
Ubisoft's extreme sports, open-world game Steep is getting its first full expansion pack later this year. The "Road to the Olympics" add-on will, as the name suggests, take you into an experience tied around the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. You'll have the chance to represent your favorite country across different competitions, including the snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe, as well as ski cross and slalom. Based on the trailer released today, it looks like Steep's Road to the Olympics could be a good time killer, especially since it's an officially licensed product.
