Monthly Archives: August 2015
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Has an S Pen Design Flaw
Inserting the S Pen the wrong way round into a Galaxy Note 5 can cause damage to the phone or the stylus.
Tech site Android Police first reported the problem. The Note 5 puts up the same amount of resistance whether you put the S Pen into the slot the correct way round or upside down. If you do put it in upside down it can get stuck, and forcibly removing it can cause serious damage to the pen detection mechanism.
Samsung reportedly knows about this, and has advised users to closely follow the instruction manual. The pointed end of the S Pen must be inserted first to ensure it doesn't get stuck. The company has not yet made any statement about whether something will be done about the issue on a hardware level.
Watch Sony’s Fast Prototype Drone in Action
Sony publically tested a prototype of its speedy airplane-looking drone that the company plans on putting to use serving business customers.
Looking like a chubby concorde, the VTOL takes off and lands vertically like a Harrier Jump Jet. It’s capable of flying for more than two hours with a top speed of 106 mph (170 kph) and can carry a load of up to 22 pounds (10 kg).
Sony’s joint-venture drone company called Aerosense is developing the device as part of Sony’s strategy to expand into enterprise markets.
Aerosense will cater to business by offering automatically piloted services such as inspecting infrastructure and surveying land.
Minecraft: Story Mode Beta Will Be Playable at PAX
The beta for Telltale Games' Minecraft: Story Mode will be playable for the first time at this year's PAX Prime.
As per Telltale's official blog, this will be the first time anybody's played the narrative-driven riff on Mojang's popular game outside of the company. It will also be the first time Telltale's shown off Minecraft: Story Mode outside of the teaser trailer shown off at Minecon.
Minecraft: Story Mode will be released across five episodes. Here's the official description from Telltale on its story and its (impressive) cast list:
NASA Gets a Closer Look at Ceres’ Four-Mile Tall ‘Pyramid’
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned the closest-yet views of Ceres, detailing its odd, conical mountain and crater formations.
"Dawn is performing flawlessly in this new orbit as it conducts its ambitious exploration. The spacecraft's view is now three times as sharp as in its previous mapping orbit, revealing exciting new details of this intriguing dwarf planet," Dawn's chief engineer and mission director Marc Rayman said in a statement.
Ceres’ “pyramid” has the same has the same elevation as Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America.
Podcast: The Digigods take a look at Banksy’s latest release
From their secluded home-theater compound, film critics Wade Major and Mark Keizer mix insightful commentary with irreverent banter, covering the latest DVD and Blu-ray news and new releases of the week, including studio, independent, television and special-interest titles.
Digigods Podcast, 08/25/15 (MP3) -- 31.1 MB
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Dirt Rally Goes to Hell
Codemasters has added multiplayer to Dirt Rally’s recently introduced rallycross mode, meaning players will now be able to go head-to-head with each other on Dirt Rally’s special rallycross circuits.
Codemasters has also thrown in a potentially punishing new location: Hell, Norway. Hell has hosted a round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship since 2011 and in 2014 became a host of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
This multiplayer update (which, like all Dirt Rally updates while the game is in Steam Early Access, is free) also contains three new cars (the Citroën DS 3, the Subaru WRX STi, and the MINI Countryman Rallycross).
Check Out NASA’s Crash Test Montage Video
Seeing what goes on in a crash can be fascinating to watch - but for NASA, it's just another step in the creation and development of various aircraft and space ships.
The space agency released a video earlier today showing what goes on at their Landing Impact and Research Facility, which includes several clips of planes and modules crashing into walls, dirt, and even water. The facility was originally built in 1965 (when it was known as the Lunar Landing Research Facility), but has since been refitted to carry out large scale crash tests.
At one point in the montage, there's a timelapse of the creation of a pool that a landing pod will be dropped into. Not only is it impressive to see, but it also shows that a lot of prep work goes into the testing phase. It's not as simple as dropping something from a high place, taking notes and going back to try again - though there probably is a bit of that as well. Who knows how many tests were conducted before the Messenger Probe and Curiosity Rover were signed off on.
Funko Reveals New Batman ’66 Idolz Figures
Funko is celebrating the enduring legacy of the classic Batman TV show from the '60s with an all-new line of Idolz figures.
Costing $20 each, the series includes 8-inch tall figures of Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and The Joker, each in their costumes from the original show. The figures will be available starting in October, and you can check them out in the gallery below.
For more Batman '66 goodness, check out Diamond Select's Batgirl figure from this year's Toy Fair.
Cassidee is a freelance writer and the co-host of a podcast about freelancing. You can chat with her about that and all other things geeky on Twitter.
Mads: I’m Not a Villain in Star Wars’ Rogue One
Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen says he is, in fact, not playing a villain in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
When Mikkelsen's casting in the prequel to A New Hope was revealed at D23 Expo, many folks assumed he was playing a villain given how many bad guys he's portrayed in the past. The Danish actor chatted with the paper Ekstra Bladet about his role in the Gareth Edwards-directed film.
New Blade Could Focus on His Daugther
A rumored reboot of the Blade film franchise may focus on the new comic iteration of the character: his daughter.
Bleeding Cool reports that Marvel is planning to make the movie match the upcoming comic reboot, which is set to feature Fallon Grey, daughter of the original vampire-hunter.
The side adds that the release of the new Blade comic has been delayed recently because "the character and the comic are suddenly considered extremely important by the bean counters, and the multi-media folk" at Marvel. Because a movie could be happening, perhaps?