The NBA on Friday launched its own virtual reality app on the Google Daydream. As part of the launch, the NBA will debut its first-ever episodic VR series, House of Legends, featuring NBA Hall of Famers and other greats.
Hosted by comedian Chris Distefano, House of Legends will be an immersive interview series where former NBA athletes discuss their careers and a bit of pop culture. The first episode will feature one of the most-clutch NBA players ever, seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry. Future episodes will include more NBA greats like James Worthy, Bruce Bowen, John Starks, John Salley, and Chauncey Billups. No schedule for the episodes has been announced yet.
The new NBA VR app will feature a virtual sports lounge where you can catch Steph Curry splashes, Lebron James passes, and many other NBA highlights. The app was built by visual effects company Digital Domain, which also produced the House of Legends series, as well as designed and created the 3D sports lounge.
The NBA has been holding court in the VR realm so far this year. The league and premier virtual reality production company NextVR recently announced plans to offer free on-demand highlights from all of the 2017 NBA All Star Game festivities in virtual reality for the first time ever. Anyone with the NextVR app and a Samsung Gear VR or Google Daydream headset will be able to enjoy the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, JBL Three-Point Contest. and Verizon Slam Dunk Contest this weekend in virtual reality.
For the 2016-2017 NBA season, one game a week has been live-streamed in virtual reality on the NextVR app for those with NBA League Pass subscriptions. Starting February 23, anyone can now pay to watch single games through NBA League Pass for $6.99 per game.
The NBA is taking an “if you build it, they will come” approach with virtual reality. “There aren’t millions upon millions of people clamoring to watch NBA in VR, just yet,” Jeff Marsillo, vice president of global media for the NBA, told Digital Trends in the press room at Madison Square Garden last November. “When that does arrive, we want to be ready.”
The NBA VR app is available in the Google Play Store.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.