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Walyou

Push button, receive bacon: early internet meme comes to life
Alienware Alpha Steam Machine Packs Mediocre Specs at a Steep Price
Pantelligent, the smart frying pan that gets recipes just right
YouTube Announces ‘YouTube Music Key’ Streaming Service
Pinc Headset and iPhone 6 Put VR at Your Fingertips

Push button, receive bacon: early internet meme comes to life

Posted: 24 Nov 2014 06:00 AM PST

Long overdue by many years, an old meme receives a new wind by coming into existence. The result is both hilarious and delicious.

An early Internet meme (Ok, 2004 is not that early, but still) made fun of the instructions found on hand dryer devices by writing Push Button, Receive Bacon around them either in printed letters or just hand-writing, as the hot air depicted in the pictures totally looked like bacon strips. Minessota inventors at The Rabbit Hole created a machine based off of that idea for the Deconstruction.

This bacon machine doesn’t actually use any hot air to cook the bacon but a fuser from a laser printer instead. This fuser can already go over 450ºF, and goes around the meat cooking it so a paper shredder can cut it in strips afterwards. Isn’t this the thing we’ve all been wanting for so long?

Via Technabob

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Alienware Alpha Steam Machine Packs Mediocre Specs at a Steep Price

Posted: 24 Nov 2014 05:30 AM PST

As the launch of most Steam Machines has been postponed for 2015, Alienware has decided to take the matter into its own hands and launch Alpha, the first rig meant to run SteamOS.

Alienware desktops and laptops have always come at a premium, but in most cases, the price was somehow justified by the otherworldly design and the extreme performance. This doesn’t really apply with the Alpha, a consolized gaming PC with a simple and beautiful design, but with mediocre specs. Dell must have become too full of themselves if they’re even thinking that such a device could sell well, given its capabilities.

As any custom built machine, the Alienware Alpha cannot be upgraded. Add to that the fact that it comes with an Xbox controller (why not a Steam one?) and you begin to wonder what /r/PCMasterRace would have to say about the whole deal. Even if it was conceived as a console, the cheapest configuration is more expensive than the PS4, so one has to wonder what the selling point of this Steam Machine really is.

The cheapest Alpha costs $549 and gets you a dual-core Intel Core i3-4130T CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX GPU with 2GB of GDDR5, 4GB of DDR3L RAM, and a 500GB HD. At the other end of the spectrum is a $899 quad-core Intel Core i7-4765T CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX GPU with 2GB of GDDR5, 8GB of DDR3L RAM, and a 2TB HDD. All configurations come with Windows 8.1, and it’s at the users choice to install SteamOS or not. Needless to say, delivering these Steam Machines without an operating system, or with the free SteamOS installed by default, would’ve brought down the price a little bit. Even so, the Alienware Alpha is too expensive for what it offers, and gamers are better off building their own rigs and installing SteamOS on them.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity is one of the games that won’t run properly on the cheapest Alpha, as it requires a quad-core processor and a bit more than the 4GB of RAM the Steam Machine is equipped with. Also, people buying this (if any) shouldn’t set their expectations too high in terms of performance, as the included GTX 860M isn’t really spectacular. All in all, the Alienware Alpha is a disappointment targeted at wealthy gamers who only care about the looks of their devices, and not that much about what their gaming rigs are made of.

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Pantelligent, the smart frying pan that gets recipes just right

Posted: 24 Nov 2014 04:00 AM PST

Some people obsess more than others when cooking, and for those who need to get temperatures and quantities just right, here is the ultimate gadget.

Pantelligent is one of those gadgets that makes you wonder how come no one had thought about it before. The idea is pretty simple: they claim the key to a properly made meal is timing and temperature, so by controlling those, you can guarantee any meal will turn just right, eliminating potential room for error. The Pantelligent itself is the name of this frying pan that links to your smartphone (so far, only iOS) and displays useful information such as temperature, timing and so on as well as instructions and steps to follow to get the recipe right.

The pan has a few sensors that interact with smartphones via Bluetooth LE, but it uses them to do more than just repeat instructions: it can also learn from whoever uses it and store a number of recipes of the user’s own creation, as well as allow a freestyle mode, which just displays the numbers without the steps for any particular recipe: never claim that Pantelligent doesn’t let you experiment!

The Pantelligent team is attempting to get their project crowdfunded on Kickstarter, where they have already met their initial goal (that means that the Pantelligent will exist) and users can get their own by making a pledge of $199 USD, which should be cheaper than the eventual commercial release. The Pantelligent should start shipping next year in August.

Via Geeky Gadgets

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YouTube Announces ‘YouTube Music Key’ Streaming Service

Posted: 23 Nov 2014 06:59 PM PST

With so many people using YouTube to listen to music and watch music videos, YouTube has now announced the YouTube Music Key subscription service.

As much as we use YouTube for watching adorable cat videos and funny TV clips, more and more of us are turning to YouTube to listen to music. From getting to see the latest, official music videos as our favourite musicians release them to discovering indie tracks by bands we’ve never heard of, YouTube is a massive library of audio-visual hits.

The problem is, whilst it’s not short on just how many tracks are on the site, actually listening to/viewing them can be a hassle. Ads ahead of videos can spoil the experience and it can be difficult to organise playlists and skip to videos when you’re on the go.

It’s for both of these reasons that YouTube has now announced ‘YouTube Music Key’. A paid music subscription service, YouTube Music Key looks set to solve all of our music listening problems.

According to the company, YouTube Music Key has two parts to it. The first of these is the roll out of the YouTube music hub (there should be a ‘Music’ tab on the YouTube homepage right now) which recommends tracks, music videos and special playlists (both based on individual artists and what you’ve already listened to) for your hearing pleasure.

The second part of YouTube Music Key is where it gets interesting. Currently in beta, the service offers ad-free viewing, the ability to listen to tracks in the background, offline music, endless playlists and you’ll also unlock Google Play Music for free which lets you choose from over 30 million tracks (which you can download) and make custom radio stations that will even update themselves based on your music tastes. And, you can add your existing iTunes library to Google Play for free, putting every bit of music you own into one place.

That massive list of features doesn’t come free though as it will cost $10/£10/10€ per month (depending on your local currency). That figure does seem quite expensive initially but when you consider just how many songs YouTube and Google Play Music have between them (well over 50 million) it definitely seems worth it.

As for how you get access to YouTube Music Key at the moment, the service is currently invite-only and YouTube is only sending them out to their “biggest music fans first.” It’s not entirely clear what defines their ‘biggest music fans’ but those who do get the email will not only get six months of YouTube Music Key for free but they’ll also get the discounted subscription $8/£8/8€. Oh, and that promotional discount will last for the rest of their lives too, so it certainly pays off to be an early adopted.

Visit the YouTube Music Key page (the link is below) for the best chance of getting into the beta.

Source: YouTube Music Key

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Pinc Headset and iPhone 6 Put VR at Your Fingertips

Posted: 23 Nov 2014 12:57 PM PST

Virtual reality headsets are not yet mainstream, but they have already gone past being only an accessory for gaming. Pinc VR pairs up with the iPhone 6 to show us how the UI of the future could look like.

Following Samsung’s example of creating a VR headset that requires a smartphone to function, Pinc developed one that works in tandem with an iPhone 6 to give people control over a Minority Report-like UI. Besides the headset, the setup also includes two rings which need to be placed on the index fingers to enable the headset to track the movement of the hands.

“We see the opportunity for VR as much broader than just gaming. Areas like everyday computing, productivity and commerce are very interesting for us. When we can control mobile applications in 3D environments, we get into a new realm of computing” said Milan Baic, President of Cordon, who’s heading Pin? product development.

There are plenty of possible applications for such a VR headset, and the first one is obviously related to the way people interact with their mobile devices. Having multiple screens one next to another could enable users to type text messages while watching a clip or scrolling a website, even though only one of the screens is in focus and the others occupy the peripheral vision.

“The biggest limitation for customers, developers and brands is the screen and interaction size on mobile devices,” pointed out Baic. This VR headset really has the potential of redefining multi-tasking on mobile devices. There are several ways to display the mobile screens next to each other, including Tile, Spider, Cabinet, Horizon, Carousel, and Hover. Users are encouraged to pick the mode that suits their needs best.

Pinc could change the way we interact with maps, and this is something not many VR headset manufacturers have thought of. Needless to say, using Pinc for directions while driving would have disastrous results. Maybe an AR headset would be better in that case, or in the case of motorcycle drivers, an AR helmet.

Not at last, the Pinc VR headset could turn shopping into a completely new experience. There are already plenty of websites that showcase their products in 360-degree views, but what if we could see them in 3D, right in front of our eyes.

The Pinc VR headset is available for pre-order on the manufacturer’s website for CAD $99. The manufacturer of Pinc even provides an SDK that app developers can use to make their software compatible with the VR headset.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Dexmo F2 haptic exoskeleton that grants you control over virtual matter, or the GhostDash HUD that puts virtual rivals on the dashboard of rookie racers.