rio2016
Latest
Tokyo 2020's Olympics pitch: Mario, Pac-Man and co.
In case you didn't notice, the Olympics is wrapping up in Rio, and sports fans now have an endure a whole three years and 11 months until the next one, which happens to be in Tokyo. Japan's Olympic committee decided to highlight that fact by transforming the country's Prime Minister into Mario (naturally), showcasing its distinctive skyline (swoon!), showing some of its athletes you've probably never heard of (sorry!) and a bunch video game and anime characters. It's all backed by a punchy jazz soundtrack, and is likely to give you goosebumps, although I wonder why the creative team wasn't able to book Pikachu in time.
Adidas rewards its medal-winning Olympians with 3D-printed shoes
It's too early to tell whether 3D-printed footwear will ever be more than a gimmick. Still, you have to give credit to sportswear brands for trying something new, even if in some cases 3D printing is only used to make outsole prototypes. Last year, Adidas began showing the potential of the technology with concepts like Futurecraft 3D, a running shoe made partially out of 3D-printed materials. And now the company's taking that one step further: it created a ready-to-wear pair for its sponsored athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympics. As its name suggests, though, the "3D-printed Winners Shoe" will be limited to those who win a medal in Brazil.
This Olympics photo was brought to you by a robot
At every major swimming event, the competitors aren't the only ones in the pool. In order to bring you footage from the various races, cameras from various news and photo agencies litter the bottom of pools. Traditionally, these have been remotely triggered, but a photographer had to guess where the swimmer would be when placing their camera. This year, photo agency Getty has a new piece of tech. Photographers Al Bello, Clive Rose and Adam Pretty are all in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games, and have been using a robotic rig that gives them far greater flexibility.
What's on your HDTV: 'No Man's Sky,' Olympics, 'The Get Down'
Live streaming or tape-delayed to prime time, we're watching the Summer Olympics, but there's a lot more to check out this week than just the action in Rio. The highly-anticipated game No Man's Sky arrives on PS4 and PC this week, allowing gamers to visit some 18 quintillion planets in a quasi-multiplayer game. On Netflix, The Get Down revisits the birth of hip-hop with its first six episodes, and The Walking Dead crew gets together to preview season seven. On Blu-ray the Japanese series Female Prisoner Scorpion is arriving, and Oblivion is out on Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos audio track. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Watching Olympics coverage in VR is fun, but TV is still better
Many people complained about the tape delay and excessive ads for NBC's Rio 2016 Olympics opening ceremony coverage, but there was another option. If you had a Samsung Gear VR headset and were willing to wait a day, you could watch it in 360-degree video as if you were at Rio's Maracanã Stadium. That's what I did, and it was indeed pretty cool: You're immersed in the event and can look at whatever grabs your eye. The execution and technology are still lacking, unfortunately, which degraded the experience, but it's easy to see how it could one day be a spectacular way to view live events.
'Pokémon Go' battery saver mode will return to iOS soon
Day by day Niantic Labs keeps tweaking its incredibly popular game, and now Pokémon Go is rolling out to players across Central and South America. No matter where you're trying to catch 'em all, if you're on iOS you can expect the"battery saver" mode to return in the next several days. According to a Facebook post it was pulled because of bugs, but now that they're fixed it's coming back.
Nike used 3D printing and Olympic sprinters to design its new track shoe
When Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce competes in the women's 100m and 4x100m relay at the Olympics this month, she'll do so wearing what Nike claims is one of its most advanced track and field shoes yet. The 29-year-old Jamaican, who is favored for gold in Rio, actually helped Nike design her new spikes, the Zoom Superfly Elite. In the years leading up to the 2016 summer games, she worked with Nike's Sport Research Lab to figure out the ideal performance for a sprinter silhouette. Among other experiments, she test-3D-printed prototypes of the spikes, which were tailor-made based on captured data that measured her speed on the track and, most importantly, off the blocks.
How to watch the 2016 Rio Olympics
The summer Olympics are just a few days away, and whether or not you're a sports fan, chances are you'll want to keep up with everything that happens in Rio de Janeiro. Thankfully, you'll have many options to watch this year's games. But before we tell you how to tune in, you should know the event officially kicks off on August 5th, but certain competitions begin earlier. For instance, soccer (aka football) has games on August 3rd, starting with the women's match between Sweden and South Africa. There's also going to be gymnastics training that day. Whatever your favorite sport may be, NBCUniversal is going to have those of you in the U.S. covered -- even in virtual reality.
The first 8K satellite TV broadcasts are live in Japan
Just as we were getting used to Ultra HD 4K, Japan's NHK has kicked off its Super Hi-Vision broadcast tests, sending out 4K and 8K video via satellite. Unfortunately, there's no way to watch the super high res feeds and 22.2 channel sound at home -- even with a $130,000 8K TV -- but interested Japanese residents can check out tests of the feeds at several public locations in Tokyo and Osaka. NHK is using the Rio Olympics as a testbed for technology that it hopes to roll out first in 2018, and have ready for the public time for the 2020 Olympics in Japan.
Watch the Olympics in 4K Ultra HD on Comcast, DirecTV or Dish
The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are almost here, and despite the issues present in Rio, watching from home should be better than ever. If you're in need of something else to display on your brand new Ultra HD television then we have good news -- NBC will have 4K, HDR footage with Atmos surround sound available that's actually downsampled from 8K (which you can see for yourself, if you live in Japan). The only problem? Not every TV provider will be pushing it to viewers, and it will be on 24-hour tape delay.
What's on your HDTV: Summer Olympics, NFL preseason
It's time for the 2016 Summer Olympics, broadcast live from Rio (in HD, Ultra HD 4K with HDR and VR!), so you know what I'm watching this week. The tape-delayed Opening Ceremony kicks things off Friday night, but all the sports will be broadcast or streaming live (check out the schedule here, before the first action starts Wednesday afternoon). Football fans can rejoice as preseason action gets rolling, while gamers have several nice choices with Telltale's Batman game on all platforms with Crowd Play, or Don't Starve: Shipwrecked on consoles. Key & Peele's Keanu is here on Blu-ray and Netflix is ready to premiere a new David Cross comedy special plus The Little Prince.
Google weaves Olympics highlight videos into your search results
Google is no stranger to providing useful info during Olympic games, but it's kicking things up a notch for Rio. The internet behemoth has teamed up with broadcasters in 60-plus countries (including America Movil, BBC and Japan's NHK) to integrate Olympics highlight videos into both Google search results and YouTube's Watch Cards. It's not the same as watching live, of course, but it could help a lot if work or time zones force you to catch up after the fact.
Wearable tech will be everywhere at this year's Olympics
It's almost time. The 2016 summer Olympics are less than a week away, with the opening ceremony scheduled for August 5th. This year's event, which runs through August 21nd, takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the organizers have reportedly struggled to prepare for the games. Whether Rio is ready or not, some of the world's best athletes will be there to compete for gold medals in just a few days. Naturally, technology will have a presence at the Olympics. That includes wearables designed to make life easier and safer for Olympians as well as others supposed to help in training. Read on in the gallery below to learn about eight different pieces of gear the athletes will be using.
Olympic athletes are training with brain-altering headphones
Many of the athletes heading to the Rio Olympics are using some form of technology to help them out, but some of them are relying on particularly unusual gear. Halo Neuroscience has revealed that several athletes are using its Halo Sport headphones to (hopefully) improve the effectiveness of their training. The wearable is meant to stimulate your brain's motor cortex into a momentary "hyperplasticity" mode, where it can more effectively build neural connections -- if you're in the thick of resistance training, you may move on to heavier weights that much sooner.
Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Edition on sale for $850
If you're more into real-life superheros than fantasy ones, Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Games Limited Edition is now available at Best Buy for $850. Like the Batman Edition, this is a standard Galaxy S7 Edge on the inside, but the outside is another thing. There, you'll find a unique "black onyx" body replete with Olympic colors: A yellow-trimmed fingerprint sensor and speaker, red and green buttons and the iconic rings and camera tinted in blue. It also includes the Rio Olympics 2016 app with schedules, venue info and real-time updates and results.
NBC lays out its streaming plans for Rio 2016
NBC dropped a few more details on its streaming plans for the Summer Olympics, but it's important to first note what won't be streaming live: the Opening Ceremony. The broadcaster revealed that both TV and online will be on one hour broadcast delay (more on the west coast), and justified the decision by saying it wouldn't need to cut any countries out of the intro to fit commercials. As far as the actual sports, they will all be ready for viewing live, on TV or online. If you don't have cable TV you can expect 30 minutes of streaming access on your first visit before being prompted to login, and after that five minutes without logging in (maybe try clearing those cookies).
Samsung made a special edition Galaxy S7 Edge for Olympians
Samsung likes to trot out special editions of its flagship devices from time to time, and it's most recent is heading to the hands of Olympians bound for Rio. The Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Games Limited Edition (whew!) is complete with the official colors of the event and that iconic interlocked rings logo. Samsung worked with the IOC to provide 12,500 of the devices to athletes so that they'll have a way to communicate while visiting Brazil. The phone is equipped with Samsung's new Rio 2016 mobile app that offers a directory complete with schedule, venue info, results, medal counts and real-time updates.
The Olympics will be shown in VR, but only on Samsung headsets
NBC began outlining its plans for broadcasting Rio 2016 yesterday, but a few more juicy tidbits have now filtered through. The AP (via ABC News) is reporting that around 85 hours of programming will be available to watch in VR, but only if you use Samsung's Gear VR. The brief report claims that the opening and closing ceremonies will get the 360-degree treatment, as will the men's basketball, gymnastics and track and field. Details beyond that brief outline are sketchy, although it's interesting that the footage is provided by a unit of the International Olympic Committee rather than the usual suspects, like NextVR. All of the content will be available on the NBC Sports app, assuming that you've got a Gear VR-compatible smartphone, of course.
NBC: Rio 2016 broadcast is its 'most live Olympics ever'
While NBC has been criticized for years over its use of tape delay, a combination of multiple channels, live streaming and Brazil's favorable time zone (just hour ahead of ET) mean that shouldn't be a problem this summer. For Rio 2016, NBC says this will be its "most live Olympics ever" with 4,500 hours of coverage streaming on NBCOlympics.com and the recently renamed NBC Sports app. Also new this time around is that the NBC Sports app is on connected TV devices (it launched on Roku and Apple TV last year), not just mobile. You will, of course, still need a cable or satellite account to login and view everything, although NBC hasn't revealed all the details on how that will work.
NBC will air the 2016 Rio Olympics in 4K, HDR and Atmos
NBC has announced that it will make content from this year's Olympic Games available to carriers in 4K and HDR, however there's one little catch. In a setup that will seem familiar for early HDTV adopters who still can't get Sony's "we brought chips... and salsa!" ad out of their heads 12 years later*, 4K UHD footage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, swimming, track and field, basketball, the men's soccer final, and judo is coming home on 24 hour tape delay. NBC will provide a downconverted version of the 8K feed Olympic Broadcasting Services and Japan's NHK are experimenting with, to 4K, and present it in HDR with Dolby Atmos surround sound audio. According to NBC Sports president Gary Zenkel, "The Olympics have been a consistent driver of technological advancements, and Rio will be no different."
