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How HoloLens is helping advance the science of spaceflight
AR headsets haven't exactly caught on with the general public -- especially after the Google Glass debacle. Mixed reality technology has garnered a sizable amount of interest in a variety of professional industries, though, from medicine and education to design and engineering. Since 2015, the technology has even made its way into aerospace where NASA and its partners have leveraged Microsoft's HoloLens platform to revolutionize how spacecraft are constructed and astronauts perform their duties while in orbit.
Palm phone review: A tiny 'second phone' no one needs
The only phone I've ever waited in line for in my life was the original Palm Pre. What can I say? I believed in the company's approach to design, webOS seemed to have a lot of potential and I thought the market could use some more competition. I bought in, and I was crushed when HP acquired Palm and ran webOS into the ground. Now, years later, the Palm brand is back, and its new stewards are asking us to buy in once again. The pitch this time is highly unusual though. The company is selling a tiny, $350 Verizon-exclusive smartphone that's supposed to be a companion to your regular phone for when you want to disconnect... but not completely. There's little argument that we all probably spend too much time on our phones, and the former Samsung design execs who crafted the Palm did so to bring people out of their bubbles and back into the real world. The problem Palm is trying to tackle is a real one, and people deserve a solution. I'm just not sure Palm's first attempt is one that'll actually work for most people. Sure, it has its charms. In most cases, though, it's such a pain to live with that you'll wish you never decided to leave your main phone at home.
Kyocera releases tiny e-paper companion phone in Japan
If you've been curious as to what Instagram might look like on an e-paper screen and happen to live in Japan, the Kyocera Card Keitai KY-01L might be of interest. It's a companion device that's supposed to be a sidekick to a beefier mobile phone. The KY-01L is really small -- not too much larger than a credit card. It's about 9 centimeters tall, 5 centimeters wide, 5 millimeters thick and weights in at a miniscule 47 grams. It has a standby time of 100 hours and a continuous talk time of 110 minutes.
Astronauts are trying Microsoft HoloLens in space
Astronauts will soon have plenty of sweet tools at their disposal, but nothing quite like this -- as promised, NASA recently began testing Microsoft HoloLens aboard the International Space Station. The augmented reality headset is there as part of an experimental project, Sidekick, that gives crews a helping hand without having to flip through thick manuals or stay on the radio. Someone on the ground can use Skype to not only offer voice directions during repairs, but draw notes at the moment they're relevant. They'll also get animated visuals on top of real-world objects, showing them how to complete less-than-obvious tasks.
NASA is putting Microsoft's HoloLens to work in space
When its mixed reality headset was first announced, Microsoft touted its ability to lend a hand in a variety of enterprise scenarios. The company teamed up with NASA for Sidekick: a project that is putting HoloLens on the International Space Station to give virtual aid to astronauts. The project uses the tech in two ways to offer support a crew member wouldn't ordinarily have while completing a task. First, Remote Expert Mode uses Skype to give someone on the ground a view of exactly what the astronaut is seeing. From there, a colleague can remotely guide the task or scribble notes and drawings in the astronaut's view -- all in real time. A Procedure Mode overlays animated holographic illustrations on top of real objects for reference. Not only could this cut down on training time, but it could provide a valuable guide in situations plagued by communication delays.
The Daily Grind: Should all MMOs have a sidekick system?
One of the best features of RIFT's recent Nightmare Tide expansion is, in my opinion, the sidekicking system. For a while now, the game's allowed you to artifically "mentor" down to a level, but with the expansion you can now artificially sidekick up to quest, run dungeons, or fight rifts with friends. After trying this out to my delight the other night and remembering how much I liked it in City of Heroes, I have to really wonder why more level-based MMOs don't include such a system. Do you think this should be a standard feature? To me, it seems to solve so many problems when it comes to level-heavy games that separate friends from each other. Instead, sidekicking allows for people to play together whenever they want while still preserving the progression that comes with leveling and XP. What do you think? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Soapbox: The problem with power creep and progression
We've all seen it. You might not have put a name to it, but it's there. As MMOs get older, certain dungeons become obsolete. Or maybe that fantastic top-level gear you once had to have is completely worthless now and isn't even in normal gear progression anymore. That is power creep, the phenomenon by which content becomes completely worthless as a game ages. I can't imagine being on the developer's side when power creep starts rearing its ugly head. All that time a developer spent sculpting the content to be the perfect match of mechanics and story becomes wasted. Power creep can't be avoided, right? Developers have to make new content to keep people interested in the game. And themepark games have to have a linear progression, right? We also don't want the disparity between the new players and the old players to be too great because it will discourage population growth. Then how in the world do we stop this never-ending cycle? How do we keep MMO progression fun and interesting without content falling off the end of the treadmill?
ITC rules that Samsung violates four Apple patents covering design, touch
The back and forth continues. US International Trade Commission Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender has made an initial ruling that some Samsung's devices violate four Apple patents, including one iPhone design patent (the one you see above) and three software patents. Apple didn't manage a clean sweep, as Samsung was cleared of treading on two more patents, but the verdict still carries the all-too-familiar potential for a trade ban if the ITC maintains the findings in its final review. It's bleak news for the Korean company, which faced an initial loss to Apple at the ITC just last month -- even though large swaths of the mostly Android-based Galaxy phones and tablets in the dispute have long since left the market, an upheld verdict gives Samsung one less bargaining chip in a protracted legal war.
T-Mobile retires Sidekick 4G, but brand will return
While the fires that burn inside the hearts of Sidekick fans will probably never go out, the venerable Android slider is being put out to graze. T-Mobile announced last week that the Sidekick 4G was to be discontinued, but it's now added that it's not leaving that pervasive brand behind. In a statement to The Verge, the carrier affirmed that there would be future devices, but didn't reveal anything more substantive on new handsets in the pipeline. We'll keep twiddling our QWERTY-addled thumbs until more details arrive.
The Perfect Ten: Clever ideas
I'm a sucker for a good, clever idea. You know the type: the ideas that make you slap yourself on the forehead and shout, "Why didn't I think of that first?" Or for the less humble of us out there, "Why, I did think of that first! But I got lost on the way to the patent office and I'm pretty sure that someone stole my dream journal to pilfer my genius notions!" While critics point their fingers at the MMO industry and proclaim it a barren wasteland of innovation, there are quite a few awesome -- if small -- ideas that bubble up in MMO and move the genre forward. Maybe they're teeny-tiny baby steps; maybe they're giant hopscotch leaps over the six-spot with the rock in the middle. But these ideas can and have had the power to change how these games are made and played. So this week I'm saluting 10 clever ideas, both large and diminutive, as a reward for a job well done!
Betray your mates with Age of Wushu's boss sidekick system
How does becoming a boss mob in your favorite MMORPG sound? It certainly raised our eyebrows, and Snail Games' new Age of Wushu (also known as Age of Wulin in Europe and its native China) is apparently going to allow you to do just that. MMO Culture has the details, and the new boss sidekick system basically involves random boss mobs that ask players for help. If a player agrees, he will spawn next to the boss mob, essentially becoming one of its minions for an upcoming fight. The source article notes that Age of Wushu lacks grandiose fantasy elements, so the boss (and you as its minion) will still be human as opposed to a variation on the gargantuan crab/dragon/spider creature you may be expecting. Another point of note is that the minion player will temporarily relinquish control of his character, and the avatar will fight alongside the boss AI against player characters (and it will provide substantial rewards if the human party is defeated). Finally, MMO Culture says that player decisions relative to the boss sidekick system will affect the world storyline for every player on a given server. We don't know how just yet, but we'll certainly keep our eyes on this curious new mechanic.
The Daily Grind: Should more MMOs implement sidekicking?
Back when Ultima Online was young, gamers didn't have to think about things like levels or content walls. Regardless of our skills or how long we'd been playing, we just joined up with our guildmates and went dungeoning. Throw enough people at a lich lord or a demon and that sucker's going down! But with the rise of level-based themepark games, the gap between time-rich and time-poor players has widened -- you aren't going to accomplish much if you're level 15 and your friends are all 50 and knee-deep in the endgame. To help alleviate that problem, games like City of Heroes and EverQuest II pioneered "sidekicking" and "mentoring" systems, which allow highbies to partner up with lowbies, effectively boosting the noobies' levels and enabling their access to high-end content. Other games shun such systems, perhaps because they're difficult to balance and allow players to (at least temporarily) skip grindy level-based content that's meant to slow them down and keep them paying. What do you think -- should more MMOs implement sidekicking systems? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Danger's iconic Hiptop fades away / the Sidekick is here to stay
At the turn of the millennium, three men formed Danger Incorporated, which went on to create a smartphone perfectly positioned for its time. Those men eventually wound up at Google... after one of them founded Android. But what became of the T-Mobile Sidekick, their stylish swiveling phone? After an illustrious life filled with fame, fortune and failure, the Hiptop met its end today. Today, Microsoft and T-Mobile will shut down the Danger servers for good, leaving existing handsets without the push email and cloud services that once made them indispensable to the teens, tweens and businesspeople who used them day in and day out -- leaving the Android-powered Sidekick 4G to fan the remaining embers of the brand. Join us after the break for a video celebration of Danger's pop culture phenomenon, and head on over to Geekwire for a brief history of the iconic device. Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got a little water in our eye.
Danger co-founders reunite with Andy Rubin at Google to focus on Android hardware
In the year 2000, former Apple, WebTV and Philips employees Andy Rubin, Joe Britt, and Matt Hershenson founded a little company called Danger Incorporated, which you may know from such hits as the original Sidekick and a $500 million sale to Microsoft. One of those three co-founders, Andy Rubin, has since become a very public face at Google, and it turns out he's recently gotten back together with his former compatriots to do more than just reminisce about the old days. As Fortune reports, both Britt and Hershenson quietly joined Google "within the last twelve months" to run a new Android Hardware wing of the company. So far, much of their work has apparently focused on accessories and, while there's reportedly no plans for any actual Google-branded accessories anytime soon, Britt reportedly said that he would like to see the company produce some Android peripherals of its own "in the long term." Of course, Danger also produced its own software back in the day and, as you're probably aware, the key architect of it, Matias Duarte, is now at Google as well. [Image: Entrepreneurship.org]
Sidekick 4G review
It's been nearly two years since we last reviewed a T-Mobile Sidekick, and it would be a vast understatement to say things have changed. Then, they were designed by Danger and manufactured by Sharp, and were the messaging phone of choice. Today, following fiasco and failure, the Sidekick empire is in ruins. But good ideas and their originators live on, and several of Danger's brightest wound up in Mountain View, California. Danger's Andy Rubin founded Android, design director Mattias Duarte built Honeycomb (after helping craft the Helio Ocean and webOS for Palm) and now, the Sidekick itself has joined its founders in the house that Google built. In many ways, the Sidekick 4G is a return to form, but in an ecosystem filled with similar Android devices, can it stand out from the crowd? %Gallery-122540%
T-Mobile G-Slate and Sidekick 4G now on sale, Android overload imminent
That delectable G-Slate we just reviewed is today shaking off the cobwebs from its long journey westward and is making itself available for purchase directly through T-Mobile. The price is still a daunting $530 with a two-year contract and there's a suggested retail price of $750, though we're not seeing any option to obtain it that way. Then again, why would you want to, it's a 4G tablet designed to ride T-Mobile's HSPA+ airwaves anyhow. In more budget-conscious news, the Sidekick 4G is also making its retail debut today, at $99 on contract, bringing all the goods of a Galaxy S handset, combined with a QWERTY slider keyboard and a tricked-out Android UI. Hit the links to learn more about both, though don't blame us if you end up doing damage to your bank balance in the process. Update: Fear not, there is indeed a fine-print option to purchase the tablet off-contract if you really want to spend $750. [Thanks, Charlie]
RadioShack to get T-Mobile Sidekick 4G on April 20th
While T-Mobile's staying coy about the Sidekick 4G's availability, RadioShack went ahead and gave us the final piece of the puzzle: according to one of its latest tweets, said Android phone is heading to the Shack on April 20th. Oh yes, this just so happens to be the rumored date for the G-Slate and G2X as well. Coincidence? Only time will tell, and let's hope that this doesn't end up being an April Fool's joke -- well, at least the Shack would have something to blame if it actually misheard the information over the phone.
T-Mobile Sidekick 4G by Samsung priced at $99.99 with a two-year contract, we go hands-on
Ready for some serious Sidekick 4G news? We thought so. First up, we've finally got the official pricing details from T-Mobile. That's right, come this spring the revived Sidekick will be hitting the likely-to-be-acquired carrier for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate and two-year contract with unlimited data -- those that opt for the two-year contract but go with a lower-end data plan will have to pay $149.99 for the Android 2.2 handset. Sure, the pricing doesn't sound all that shabby, but how's the actual phone? There was no stopping us from getting our hands all over the first ever touchscreen-equipped Sidekick here at CTIA Wireless -- hit the break for our impressions and a hands-on video. %Gallery-119432%
T-Mobile demos new Sidekick opening mechanism, promises mobile hotspot and tethering support
So what do you think of the first touchscreen Sidekick? A desperate attempt to keep an archaic brand alive with unrelated hardware or a modern retelling of a successful retail story? Either way, T-Mobile's keeping the popular name alive, albeit with an Android 2.2 foundation and Samsung-built guts. The new slider mechanism, which replaces the popular 180-degree swivel that was the hallmark of Sidekick devices, has now been treated to a neat video demo, where it's assured upwards thrust gives us cause to be cautiously optimistic. Phone Scoop has also received confirmation that Android's built-in mobile hotspot and USB tethering functions will be supported on the new device, along with MicroSD memory expansion -- 1GB of storage on board will be supplemented with a 2GB card in the box -- WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Video follows after the break. [Thanks, Brandon and Timothy]
T-Mobile Sidekick 4G from Samsung announced, coming 'later this spring'
Sure, Danger's servers are going away, but the Sidekick brand belongs to T-Mobile -- and that particular component of the teen-friendly smartphone ecosystem pioneer isn't going anywhere. Of course, the carrier's been saying for a couple months now that it'd be relaunching Sidekick on Android, but they're making the device very official today with the unveiling of the Samsung-sourced Sidekick 4G. Though it lacks a swiveling display, T-Mobile is quick to note that the phone's got a "pop-tilt" mechanism that should still be pretty unique in the market -- and this is the first Sidekick with a touchscreen (3.5 inch WVGA, to be exact). The Android 2.2-based unit has a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 3 megapixel primary cam, and a pretty fierce-looking user interface (dare we say a tad Kin-like?) that comes loaded with a couple Samsung staples -- Samsung Media Hub, notably -- along with Qik video calling, DriveSmart texting-while-driving lockout functionality, and Sidekick Group Text and Cloud Text, which together form some manner of cross-platform messaging tool. Pricing and availability are a little murky at this point, but we can expect it "later this spring" in your choice of black or "pearl magenta." Follow the break for the full press release.
