Month: March 2019

• 

  Nintendo's cardboard-fueled Labo line is back, and this time, it's draped over your Switch as a headset to simulate a VR effect. Buy either the starter set or the full VR Kit bundle. [credit: Nintendo ]

Rumors of a VR-fueled Nintendo Switch app or add-on have swirled for nearly two years, with fans wondering whether such an immersive update would require more hardware or a brand-new Switch model. Turns out, the answer is something a lot simpler: a bunch of foldable cardboard.

Yes, Nintendo's build-it-yourself Labo controller series will return on April 12 with arguably its most ambitious version yet: the Nintendo Labo VR Kit. This cardboard rig will include a plastic, face-fitting mask, complete with plastic lenses, that attaches to a Nintendo Switch in "portable" mode. This mix of face-fitting mask and lenses will translate the Switch's 720p screen into two eye-fitting images that simulate VR in much the same way as Google Cardboard.

How that performance will compare to smartphones, however, remains to be seen, as the Switch's LCD panel does not include the same kinds of persistence-dampening tweaks found in VR-headset panels like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. We imagine this will all still look and feel more comfortable than Nintendo's last stab at a vision-filling headset: 1995's Virtual Boy, which was legendary designer Gunpei Yokoi's final creation for Nintendo before he left the company one year later.

Enlarge / Alex Trebek speaks directly to Jeopardy! fans about his health on Wednesday, March 6. (credit: Jeopardy!)

Alex Trebek, the host of TV's Jeopardy! for 35 years, took to YouTube on Wednesday to announce bad news about his health. The 78-year-old has been diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer.

"I have some news to share with you, and it's keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our Jeopardy! fanbase," Trebek said in the video statement (embedded below). "I also wanted to prevent you from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports regarding my health. Therefore, I wanted to be the one to pass along this information."

His statement, unsurprisingly, sets medical context for his news, including his statement that his diagnosis is "just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year." He also expresses his desire and confidence to take the cancer diagnosis head-on, telling viewers that he "plans to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease."