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No longer virtual: First impressions—and many hours—with HTC’s Vive Pre

Near-final room-scale VR finally steps out of showrooms and into a cluttered office.

The HTC Vive Pre comes with everything seen here. Some assembly required. Your parents help you put it together. From HTC! (credit: Kyle Orland)

For about a year now, we've been absolutely wowed by short, controlled demos of the virtual reality tech in the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive. But enjoying a slick demo in a curated show floor booth is one thing. Having a Vive in your house to play with at your leisure is another.

Ahead of its upcoming consumer launch, Valve has sent us loaner units of its near-final HTC Vive Pre to test in the Ars Orbiting HQ. I've spent a large portion of the past few days immersed in Valve's room-scale vision of virtual reality, whiling away hours blind to the real world around me and trying not to kill myself walking around my office (which has never been cleaner, to make sure there are no tripping hazards about).

We'll have fuller reviews of the hardware and the most interesting VR experiences as we get closer to the Vive's early April 9 release. For now, here are some scattered impressions of what it's like having room-scale virtual reality in your very own room.

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16-year-old who distributed his teacher’s nude pics faces felony charges

“When you’re 16, just being sorry… is not enough anymore.”

(credit: WSPA)

A South Carolina high school teacher resigned from her job last week, after being told she would face disciplinary proceedings because a student grabbed racy pictures off her phone.

Now local news outlets are reporting that the 16-year-old boy who distributed her pictures will face felony charges. The teen has been charged with violating the state's Computer Crimes Act and "aggravated voyeurism," Union Police Chief Sam White told TV station WSPA. The student's phone contained other sexual pictures as well, White added.

Last month, the student opened Arthur's unlocked phone, found partially-nude pictures of her, and then took photos of the teacher's pictures with his own phone. He then distributed them to other students. Arthur said she took the pictures as a Valentine's Day present for her husband.

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Half of inventions “arise unexpectedly” from serendipity—not direct research

Research institutions are the least likely inspirations for that spark of creativity.

Dr. Horrible invented this Freeze Ray while singing and thinking about a lady named Penny. (credit: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog)

If you're smashing your face into the keyboard trying to come up with a brand-new invention, you need to stop and go for a walk. You could also try watching a movie about an unrelated topic. A new book on the process of invention, Inventology by Pagan Kennedy, reveals that roughly half of all inventions started as ideas or discoveries that people had while working on something else.

As Kennedy writes in a recent New York Times article:

One survey of patent holders (the PatVal study of European inventors, published in 2005) found that an incredible 50 percent of patents resulted from what could be described as a serendipitous process. Thousands of survey respondents reported that their idea evolved when they were working on an unrelated project—and often when they weren’t even trying to invent anything.

Kennedy's book, which grew out of a series of articles for the Times about unusual inventions, explores how people invented everything from sliced bread to the airport wheelie bag. The thread that runs through all of the inventors' stories is what Kennedy dubs "serendipity," or stumbling across an idea by chance. The question is whether this kind of serendipity can actually be fostered and encouraged or must simply strike like lightning.

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Elektroauto: Daimler beendet Kooperation mit Tesla

Der Ausstieg von Daimler bei Tesla Motors ist komplett. Nach dem Verkauf der Firmenanteile soll der US-Elektroautohersteller künftig auch keine Akkus oder Antriebsstränge mehr liefern. (Elektroauto, GreenIT)

Der Ausstieg von Daimler bei Tesla Motors ist komplett. Nach dem Verkauf der Firmenanteile soll der US-Elektroautohersteller künftig auch keine Akkus oder Antriebsstränge mehr liefern. (Elektroauto, GreenIT)

Bayerische Software Werke: BMW will das “intelligenteste Auto” bauen

Zum 100. Firmengeburtstag sollte sogar die Kanzlerin nach München kommen. In Zukunft will BMW auch bei der Entwicklung von selbstfahrenden Autos ganz vorne dabei sein. (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)

Zum 100. Firmengeburtstag sollte sogar die Kanzlerin nach München kommen. In Zukunft will BMW auch bei der Entwicklung von selbstfahrenden Autos ganz vorne dabei sein. (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)

Recht auf Vergessenwerden: Google aktiviert Geoblocking für ausgelistete Links

Die kompletten Suchergebnisse von Google sind von kommender Woche an nur noch über Proxy-Server zu sehen. Ob das allen europäischen Datenschutzbehörden ausreicht, ist weiter unklar. (Google, Datenschutz)

Die kompletten Suchergebnisse von Google sind von kommender Woche an nur noch über Proxy-Server zu sehen. Ob das allen europäischen Datenschutzbehörden ausreicht, ist weiter unklar. (Google, Datenschutz)

Google Asked to Remove 100,000 ‘Pirate Links’ Every Hour

Copyright holders are continuing to increase the number of pirate links they want Google to remove from its search results, which have now reached a record-breaking 100,000 reported URLs per hour. This remarkable milestone is more than double the number of pirated links that were reported around the same time last year.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

google-bayIn recent years copyright holders have overloaded Google with DMCA takedown notices, targeting links to pirated content.

These requests have increased dramatically over the years. In 2008, the search engine received only a few dozen takedown notices during the entire year, but today it processes two million per day on average.

Data gathered by TorrentFreak from Google’s Transparency Report shows that the number of links reported in DMCA notices has more than doubled compared to last year, and quadrupled in comparison to the year before.

March 2014 Google was asked to remove roughly six million links per week, growing to eight million in 2015 and a whopping 19 million last week.

As an illustration of the sheer volume, this means that Google is now being asked to remove well over 100,000 links to alleged copyright infringing material every hour.

The number of notices continues to increase at a rapid pace and at the current rate the search engine will have to process a billion reported links this year alone. This same milestone previously took well over a decade to reach.

The graph below illustrates this sharp rise in takedown notices.

googlenewrecord

While not all takedown requests are accurate, the majority of the reported links are. As a result many popular pirate sites are now less visible in Google’s search results, since Google downranks sites for which it receives a high number of takedown requests.

In a submission to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator a few months ago Google stated that the continued removal surge doesn’t influence its takedown speeds.

“We process more takedown notices, and faster, than any other search engine,” the search giant commented.

“We receive notices for a tiny fraction of everything we host and index, which nonetheless amounts to millions of copyright removal requests per week that are processed, on average, in under six hours.”

The company rejects broader actions, such as the removal of entire domain names, as this would prove counterproductive and lead to overbroad censorship.

Copyright holders, however, don’t share these concerns. Over the years groups such as the MPAA and RIAA have repeatedly argued that clearly infringing sites should be barred from Google’s index. In addition, they want Google to promote legal services.

While Google believes that the billion reported URLs are a sign that the DMCA takedown process is working properly, rightsholders see it as a signal of an unbeatable game of whack-a-mole.

As this stalemate continues, we can expect the number of reported pages to continue to rise in the future, adding millions of new URLs on a daily basis.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Samsung, Philips Removes 3D Support for 2016 TVs, LG Cutting Back Too

The future of 3D, at least in the home, looks bleak as Samsung and Philips have both announced they will stop supporting 3D in their latest TVs.It follows reports from South Korea that LG may also be cutting back on the number of TV models th…



The future of 3D, at least in the home, looks bleak as Samsung and Philips have both announced they will stop supporting 3D in their latest TVs.

It follows reports from South Korea that LG may also be cutting back on the number of TV models that support 3D.

While LG may still be unsure about what it plans to do with 3D support in the future, Samsung and Philips have no such qualms about what they plan to do with 3D. Or rather, what's not in their plans.

Both companies have announced that their 2016 line-ups will no longer support 3D viewing, and instead, the companies are shifting their focus on emerging technologies such as Ultra HD. 

"3D is dead," declared Philips' director of product strategy and planning, Danny Tack. "There are no 3D sources and nobody really wants 3D. It also complicates your TV a lot. The consumer need is simply not there."

Samsung's official statement also cites a lack of consumer demand for 3D.

"The latest 2016 TV models from Samsung will not feature 3D functionality. We have made this decision based on the limited consumer demand for 3D, and the small amount of content being produced in this format. We are instead investing in producing our best ever TV picture, SUHD TV with Quantum Dot Display, as well as innovating elsewhere in our business to deliver an immersive 3D experience," read the statement.

While other manufaturers, like Panasonic, are still sticking with 3D, it seems the general consensus is that the future of home entertainment lies away from 3D. For example, the newly released Ultra HD Blu-ray specs do not include any support for 3D playback.