Disney has commissioned the virtual reality experts at The Void to create a new experience for Star Wars fans visiting the company’s holiday resorts in Florida and California. Secrets of the Empire will offer visitors the opportunity to step into a galaxy far, far away like never before.
Lucasfilm, ILMxLAB, and The Void are all contributing to the project, to ensure that it is both entirely faithful to the franchise, and truly cutting edge in its use of VR technology. Once the headset goes on, everything you see, hear, touch, and even smell will be plucked straight from the Star Wars universe, according to Engadget.
Secrets of the Empire is the first experience that The Void is creating for Disney, having announced its induction into the company’s Accelerator mentorship program in a blog post published in July. Of course, the group has plenty of experience working to translate major franchises into exciting virtual reality experiences.
The Void is perhaps best known for Ghostbusters: Dimension, a VR experience that let visitors to Madame Tussauds New York fulfill their dreams of strapping on a proton pack and bustin’ some ghosts. The company’s edge over other outfits producing VR experiences is the fact that its tech allows multiple users to share the same virtual space.
That looks set to be a big component of Secrets of the Empire. An official announcement on The Void’s website confirmed that the experience will allow participants to interact with their friends, family, and Star Wars characters alike as they explore the virtual world untethered.
“At ILMxLAB, we want people to step inside the worlds of our stories,” said Vicki Dobbs Beck, the executive at the helm of Industrial Light & Magic’s innovation lab. “Through our collaboration with The Void, we can make this happen as guests become active participants in an unfolding Star Wars adventure.”
The Void is set to open gaming sites at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where visitors will be able to experience Secrets of the Empire for themselves. The attraction is expected to make its debut this holiday season.
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.