The PS4K, also known as the PlayStation Neo, has been widely discussed for months now, and Sony has even quietly confirmed that it’s in the works. But what about a simple mid-cycle PS4 redesign along the lines of the Xbox One S or the PS3 slim? It seems as if that minor hardware revision might be on its way sooner than we expected. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Takashi Mochizuki reports that an analyst from Macquarie Securities believes that . In a Tweet, Mochizuki spells out that it might . Considering that the PlayStation VR is launching in October, and some leaks point towards a 2016 release for Neo, this might be the single biggest year in the history of PlayStation hardware.
You probably have a wireless network at home, but for some applications a wired connection is still more reliable. It’s the same in internet backbone communications — satellites help keep the world in sync, but the best connections across the globe rely upon undersea fiber optic cables. A new undersea cable constructed with backing has just gone online linking the US west coast with Japan. The cable, which has the fitting name “FASTER,” , more than any other active undersea cable. It’s about 10 million times faster than your home broadband connection on a good day. The new cable will benefit users near one end or the other when they need to ping a server on the other end.
We’ve learned a great deal about over the last two decades, thanks to the long-term success of multiple orbital missions and rovers. It’s now considered likely that liquid water once flowed across the planet, and there’s evidence that Mars was once much warmer than it is today thanks to the greenhouse effect. One enduring question, however, has been the composition of the ancient Martian atmosphere. New research from suggests that Mars’ atmosphere once contained considerable amounts of oxygen, hinting at a more Earth-like past. Today, Mars’ atmosphere is a thin layer composed almost entirely (96%) of carbon dioxide. The average atmospheric pressure is roughly 0.6% of Earth’s sea level equivalent.
Microsoft has spent more than a year pushing consumers to upgrade to Windows 10 with increasingly aggressive messaging, but the company has finally taken a step back from that approach with the most recent set of updates to the Get Windows 10 (GWX) application. As we previously covered, Microsoft’s last GWX update of the program. For most of the past year, clicking on the red “X” at the corner of the window is how you opted out of the upgrade; Microsoft’s silent update treated this “X” as a confirmation of a scheduled update. Instead of telling Redmond that they didn’t want to use Windows 10, customers started waking up to systems that were running an operating system they neither asked for nor wanted.
How much of Volkswagen’s $10 billion sorry-about-your-diesel payout will you see if you own one of the half-million polluting VW (also Audi and Porsche) cars? You’re likely to get $5,100 to $10,000, along with the option to have your car fixed, bought back, or have the lease cancelled. This is for the 485,000 four-cylinder diesel cars sold 2009-2015. Plans are still being worked out for a smaller number of six-cylinder diesels. The $10 billion payout is about two-thirds of the total $14.7 billion settlement. The rest represents fines paid and environmental good works. In other words, others are taking a one-third cut, about the same as in most lawsuits where you’re the only plaintiff.
Facebook’s “People You May Know” has always been an interesting algorithm to watch in action. While we can’t claim to have analyzed its function in-depth, it’s fascinating to see how the addition of a single friend can change the people Facebook thinks you might like to follow. Add a few high school buddies, and you’ll see more of your fellow graduates. Add a business contact or family member, and the same thing happens. A recent investigation by Fusion.net found that Facebook doesn’t just prowl your phone contacts or mutual friends to find potential suggestions. The company also uses your location data to match you with other Facebook users, unless you’ve specifically configured your smartphone not to share that information.
Search engine optimization is something you should take very seriously when you’re running an online business. If your site’s content isn’t easily found through Google, your entire operation could be severely impacted. So take a few minutes, have your site analyzed for free on SearchBloom, and find out what changes you should make going forward. To get started, simply head over to , and enter your site’s URL. After the site is scanned, you’ll get a breakdown of your SEO strengths and weaknesses. It’s that simple — no signup process necessary. On this page, you’ll get some recommendations on how to improve your site for better SEO.
There has been a lot of attention paid recently to several excellent new rigs for capturing high-quality 360-degree stereo video — especially the . But VR-leader Jaunt still has what may be the best rig in production. Featuring 24 synchronized, global-shutter cameras and a lot of proprietary back-end software, Jaunt has used its own Studio arm to create some of the highest-quality VR videos available. Now, Jaunt is making its camera rigs and access to its back-end processing pipeline available to others. Starting next month, Radiant Images will begin renting Jaunt ONE rigs, and access to the needed post-processing tools that do the image processing, stitching, and generate stereo views.
Earlier this week, Google announced that it upgraded the satellite imagery on Google Maps and Google Earth with data collected from Landsat 8. With finer detail, more accurate colors, and a faster rate of capture, these new images from the US government make Google’s consumer-facing services better than ever. If you want to experience the new imagery yourself, simply load up Google Earth or on your platform of choice. Mountain View has already integrated the new satellite data from and the US Geological Survey, so the company’s apps and websites are better than ever. Of course, the Landsat 8 satellite is only one of many sources of imagery for Google’s satellite view.
