The app, available for the Oculus Quest 2 and the Oculus Rift, is designed to let you explore real-world locations in 3D environments. Created from scanned photographs and LiDAR technology, it’s intended to make you feel like you’re transported somewhere else. Brink Traveler succeeds in being a fun app to explore, but potential purchasers should note that it’s not a game. There are no goals and rewards in the traditional sense....
THX certifies that an audio system follows strict rules for ultra-high-quality digital sound playback. These systems can be professional theater or cinema sound systems, surround sound setups, simple home theater systems, or surround sound systems for a PC. THX Certification establishes a rigorous set of industry standards for audio reproduction. The certification means that the sound coming out of a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system or any other speaker is precisely as the audio engineer intended while recording and mixing it....
The following apps help persons who struggle to speak due to conditions such as autism, brain injury, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and stroke. They provide ways to choose words, symbols, and images to express moods, needs, and thoughts. In addition to MyTalkTools Mobile, the company offers additional apps that include MyTalkTools Workspace, which configures the mobile app. The app requires iOS 5.1.1 or higher. MyTalkTools Mobile costs $99.99 with in-app purchases....
When a car runs on software, it’s easy for an automaker to switch features on and off remotely. Then, it can charge a subscription for those features. That’s exactly what Toyota is doing with vehicles from 2018 onwards. Users will have to pay $8 a month or $80 a year for the Remote Connect service to enable the remote-start feature. “The initial reaction online was mainly confusion and anger that a feature that has been in most cars for years is now provided at extra cost in Toyotas,” AutoInsuance....
Initially rolling out in July 2021 and only on iOS, this new round of testing expansion will also include web and Android platforms (along with more users overall). As per Twitter’s original statement of intent, the feature is intended for replies to tweets as a way to suss out what types of replies to show more or less of. So it’s having users provide the data to influence the algorithm that will boost or hide replies, basically....
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, Project Guardian covers a list of thousands of high-profile accounts that include politicians, musicians, journalists, professional athletes, and more. Twitter prioritizes flags about abuse reported on these accounts and reviews them before other flagged reports in the content moderation queue. Twitter’s content moderation is done with the help of any user that can report Tweets or comments they consider to violate the platform’s policies....
In a blog post announcing the disappearance of Fleets from the platform this afternoon, Twitter said, “In the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped. Because of this, on August 3, Fleets will no longer be available on Twitter.” Introduced publicly last November (after a test run in March), Fleets were part of Twitter’s efforts to address some of the reasons behind users’ hesitancy to leave a lasting digital footprint on the social media platform....
Mac Activity Monitor The Activity Monitor is a free system utility that comes on all Macs. It includes tabs for five areas that illustrate how applications and other processes affect your computer. The tabs are: CPU: Shows the effects of processes on CPU activity Memory: Monitors usage of memory including the RAM physical memory Energy: Indicates the amount of energy used by each app Disk: Shows the amount of data read from and written to the disk Network Usage: Indicates which processes are sending or receiving data over your network...
The Trouble With Remote Car Starters and Manual Transmissions When you install an automatic starter in a vehicle that has an automatic transmission, it typically checks two things before starting the engine: that the transmission is in park and that the parking brake is set. In some installations, it will only check that the transmission is in park. The biggest problem with manual transmissions is that there is no park. They have only neutral, which is sort of like park, but the transmission is able to freewheel....
How to Use Facebook’s Built-In GIF Tool GIF files are short, repeating images often taken from video clips. They can also be homemade animations or just sparkly moving images. Facebook has its own built-in GIF tool that you can use to search for and easily insert GIFs into both your status updates and comment sections. Using GIF in Facebook Comments Inserting GIFs into comments on your friends’ posts is just as easy as inserting them into your own status updates — and you can do it both from the web and the app too....
If you’re switching to the Mac from Windows, you’ll discover that the Finder is a way to browse the file system, similar to Windows Explorer. The Mac Finder is more than a file browser, though. It’s a road map to your Mac’s file system. Taking a few minutes to learn how to use and customize the Finder is time well spent. The sidebar offers shortcuts to areas of your Mac that you likely use the most....
Why Are Vacuum Tube Stereos Still Around? In the years following the end of the Cold War, the traditional vacuum tube became common in high-end audio products. With the U.S. firmly entrenched in the production of digital solid-state devices, countries that were previously behind the digital curve still had large tube manufacturing facilities. Those countries began producing and exporting vacuum tubes to the West. As a result, American manufacturers such as Audio Research, Cary Audio, ECP Audio, Glow Audio, Granite Audio, Jolida, Manley Labs, McIntosh, Rogue Audio, and others have tapped into this phenomenon....
If a font doesn’t display correctly in a document, the font file may be damaged. If a document won’t open, it’s possible one of the fonts used in the document is the problem. Using Font Book, you can test fonts for problems and remove them. You can also validate fonts before you install them to head off future problems. Validating fonts at installation cannot prevent the files from becoming damaged later, but it prevents you from installing problem files....
There are many other differences between the two, which should help you decide which cable and converters you may need to use. Overall Findings Video Graphics Array (VGA) was the standard video cable for computers when it was first released in 1987 and are easily recognizable by their blue 15-pin connectors. At that time, the supported resolution was 640x480, but eventually expanded in stages up to Ultra Extended Graphics Array (UXGA) in 2007....
A History of Video Game Emulators Video game emulators became popular in the 1990s with the rise of personal computers and the web, which allowed aspiring developers to work together and create software capable of emulating their favorite game consoles like the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. The goal of emulation is generally to match the experience of using the original hardware, but many game emulators include extra features like options to integrate cheats, take screenshots, and create save states....
The VIVO VP01W is a low profile universal projector mount that’s designed for standard ceiling heights. It has a decent range of tilt and swivel motion, and can be rotated, but there is no height adjustment. Since it’s a universal mount, it can be used with most projectors that weigh under 30 pounds. We recently installed one of these mounts in a home theater setting to get some first-hand experience with how easy they are to install and adjust, how reliable they are, and how they hold up under real-world conditions....
High-performance EVs boast blisteringly quick acceleration, hit impressive top speeds, and exhibit excellent handling as well. Gasoline-powered vehicles offer stiff competition and benefit from over 100 years of accumulated research and development, but this is one race that might be tighter than you expect. How Do EVs Stack Up to Gasoline-Powered Vehicles? Electric and gas-powered vehicles come in lower-performance budget models, high-performance luxury models, and everything in between. There are many more gas vehicles on the road, which means there are more low-performance and high-performance gas models than electric vehicles, but electric vehicles have an advantage at both ends of the spectrum....
The American Automobile Association (AAA) suggests using contactless payments or gloves and a disinfectant at the pumps. “There are ways motorists can minimize touching surfaces when filling-up: using gloves/plastic bags or contactless payment are two options to consider," said AAA spokesperson Jeanette Casselano in an email. “Regardless, when touching the pump (and screen), we suggest using gloves or plastic bags as a barrier to touching the surface, using disinfecting wipes/hand sanitizer after filling up, wipe down the card as well....
What Are Expansion Slots Used For? The expansion card is plugged directly into the expansion port so that the motherboard has direct access to the hardware. However, since all computers have a limited number of expansion slots, it’s important to open your computer and check what’s available before you buy one. Some older systems require the use of a riser board to add additional expansion cards; however, modern computers not only usually have enough expansion slot options, but they also have features integrated directly into the motherboard, eliminating the need for so many expansion cards....
How Speakers Work Speakers make sound by vibrating, which is another way of saying sound is the product of tiny airwaves. To produce airwaves of a certain loudness or frequency, the speakers that produce those airwaves require a certain amount of power. Speakers that connect to an AV receiver are passive speakers, meaning they do not have a built-in power source, also known as an amplifier. Without connecting to an amplifier, the speakers have no source of energy to vibrate or “drive” the speakers and reproduce the sounds being fed into them....
