Episode 55 – GDC VR and Self Lacing Shoes
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Welcome to another episode of Geek Bytes Podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia…….and I’m Edgar Acosta
Every podcast we bring you the roundup of the week’s best Geek and Tech news, then we discuss that news and anything else we’re interested in that week.
In Geek News this week, we’ll talk about the A.I. Go winner, Nike’s Self Lacing shoes, the Uber family Plan, Chelsea Handler’s new Netflix Show, Indiana Jones 2019, the best Trailers of the Week and More…
In our Discussion section we talk about… the great game and VR news that came out of the Game Developer Conference that happened this week.
Now let’s Begin our show with Geek News
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Geek News
AlphaGo for the Win!
This week AlphaGo beat Lee Se-dol in game five of the DeepMind Challenge to win the series with 4 victories and 1 loss. Lee said the games were psychological difficult for him and that he felt sorry the series had come to an end. Before the match reigning Go champion Ke Jie told China Central television he believed he could beat AlphaGo.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/15/11213518/alphago-deepmind-go-match-5-result
Nike’s Self Lacing Shoes
This week Nike announced a new line of self lacing shoes. Finally fulling the promise of Back to the Future 2. The shoes are called HyperAdapt 1.0, and use a series of sensors in the heel and sole of the shoe to tell how you walk and will adjust the tightness of the laces to match your walking style. Nike says the shoes operate on a battery that will last for two weeks on a single charge. No price or release date was announced.
http://news.nike.com/news/hyperadapt-adaptive-lacing
Uber family Plan
Uber, the ride sharing service, announced Wednesday that it would be testing a new payment system that would allow one person, or business, to pay for the rides of up to 10 other people. The test will take place in Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix. The person who wants to be responsible for paying for all those rides sends invites through the app to everyone he or she wants to add to their plan. Once that invitation is accepted, all future Uber rides will be billed directly to the organizer, who will receive a receipt for every ride.
The idea came from feedback from riders who wanted a way to consolidate trip payments under one account, Uber says.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/16/11242544/ubers-family-profiles-one-person-pay-10-riders
Express Drive
General Motors and Lyft announced a service called Express Drive. GM will provide Lyft drivers with rental cars for $99 a week plus mileage if you give fewer than 40 rides. Give 65 rides and you don’t pay anything. Drivers pay for nothing else except gas. The service will launch in Chicago with 500 Chevy Equinoxes. Boston, Washington, DC and Baltimore will follow.
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/14/lyft-gm-express-drive/?ncid=rss
The Microsoft-Sony Crossover
Microsoft announced it is opening up network gaming to allow players of games on Windows and Xbox to compete against players on other platforms. Rocket League will take advantage of the feature with Xbox One/PC network play allowed later this spring. This means that PlayStation players could in the future face off against Xbox One players online.
Sony responded that they’d be open to a conversation ‘with anyone’ about cross platform online play. Please note that Sony has allowed online play between PC and PlayStation since it first came out.
http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/14/microsoft-will-let-xbox-pc-gamers-play-online-with-other-platfo/
Disney Subscription Service
The Nerdist reports that Disney is getting into the box subscription service game with a Haunted Mansion-themed subscription box, called The Ghost Post. The Ghost Post will start shipping at the end of March. Along with collectibles, you’ll receive what sounds like a scavenger hunt of sorts. The items in the box will interact with iPhones, particularly through the Phantom Radio iPhone app, to supply you with information and clues.
You can subscribe to the mystery shipments through Disney’s Ghost Relations Department . It’s $199 for three eerie boxes.
http://nerdist.com/disneys-haunted-mansion-subscription-box-will-send-you-on-a-scavenger-hunt/
Chelsea Handler’s new Netflix Show
Netflix's first talk show is almost here. Chelsea Handler announced this week that her half hour show, titled Chelsea, will premiere on May 11th, 2016. It will be filmed in front of a live studio audience and air on Netflix only 12 hours after filming. The show will run three days a week and remain up on Netflix permanently.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/16/11246290/netflix-chelsea-handler-talk-show-premiere-date-announced
Indiana Jones 2019
Disney announced this week that Harrison Ford will return once again as Indiana Jones in a new film. The movie will be directed by Steven Spielberg, and is slated for release on July 19th, 2019.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/15/11238178/harrison-ford-indiana-jones-2019-spielberg
Power Man release date
This week during the NYC premiere of Daredevil’s second season, Power Man himself, Mike Colter, finally revealed when fans can expect to see a whole lot more of Luke Cage.
Colter revealed that as of now, Luke Cage is set to release in its entirety on Sept. 30, 2016.
According to Colter, fans of Marvel’s other Netflix series have a lot to look forward to as the new series is going to be action packed from beginning to end.
http://therealstanleeworld.com/luke-cage-premiere/
That’s it for Geek New
We’ll move on to trailers of the week.
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In our Trailers of the Week section we discuss the best trailers that came out this week. Remember you can watch the full trailers at geekbytespodcast.com; We begin this week with…
X-Men: Apocalypse
The second trailer for this amazing X-Men movie hit the internet this week. We get to see the scale of destruction that Apocalypse will unleash on the world and the mutant forces that oppose him from Xavier’s School for gifted children.
In theaters May 27th
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
When a teen visits a magical place known as Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children, he learns that his new friends have special powers and powerful enemies. Directed by Tim Burton.
Release date: September 30, 2016 (USA)
Central Intelligence
A lethal CIA agent (played by Dwayne Johnson) and his former schoolmate (Kevin Hart) encounter shootouts, double-crosses and espionage while on a top-secret case.
Release date: June 17, 2016 (USA)
Sausage Party
What happens when the food you buy from the grocery store realizes their fate? When the script is written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, something very funny and NSFW.
Release date: August 12, 2016 (USA)
That’s it for Trailers of the Week
Now onto our Discussion section
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In our discussion section we talk about anything we’re interested in this week, and this week we’ll begin our discussion with…
GDC VR
VR was a big theme at the Game Developer Conference this week. The big three each made announcements:
· Sony announced the PlayStation VR headset will arrive in October for $399. It will not come with PlayStation Camera which sells for $60 or less. Move controllers are optional and sell separately for less than $50. It will launch with at least 5 games and promises 50 by December. - 100-degree FoV- 120Hz refresh, 5.7-inch OLED screen 1920 x1080
· Oculus announced 30 games will be available on its March 28th launch day. $599.
o https://youtu.be/pN6YCFlS8nU
· And Valve’s Chet Faliszek says 50 developers have VR games ready for the HTC Vive. $799, ships 4/5/16.
VR Games shown off at GDC
Job Simulator – Pretend you have a job. Targeted to Millennials. https://youtu.be/bpoCQJPCP8w
Playroom VR – Sony exclusive. A place to explore VR games and interact with objects. https://youtu.be/kAUZ1H2_fn8
Golem – Fantasy combat with a golem. https://youtu.be/UIFSt0YSDls
Eagle Flight – Fly as an eagle https://youtu.be/PoxTdZ0AO34
Star Wars Battlefront – PlayStation VR exclusive. https://youtu.be/77CMcPbLeKs
Star Wars - Trials of Tatooine - https://youtu.be/ZDDr6KjSpAY
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/03/15/playstation-vr-launching-october-for-399/
Listener E-Mail: Writer Charles Dean, author of the Bathrobe Knight e-mailed us about that LitRPG article we wrote. He noted we spelled the name of his novel incorrectly as the Bathroom Knight. We corrected it but it was nice to e-mail with him for a little bit and kinda cool to hear from an author I like. Go read the The Bathrobe Knight!
Remember, if you want to support us you can find out all the ways to do so at geekbytespodcast.com/support
That’s it for us this week. Thanks for listening.
For the Geek Bytes Podcast I’m Ramon Mejia and I’m Edgar Acosta. Now Go Geek out about something.
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Music Credits
"Happy Bee", "Movement Proposition", "Theme for Harold (var.3) ", "Take the Lead"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/