Google’s Daydream may be a great platform for entertainment, but there are also plenty of educational purposes for the virtual reality platform. To that end, Google announced a new partnership with science education company Labster to create as many as 30 virtual labs on Daydream.
The virtual labs could become a handle tool for students aiming to pursue STEM fields. In those fields, according to Google, lab time can be as important, if not more important, than spending time in a library or in class. So much so that lab time is often a requirement for many STEM degrees. The problem with that is that it can often be hard to get access to a lab, whether it be for financial reasons, distance, or any other reason.
That is where the new partnership between Google and Labster comes in. According to Labster, students from Arizona State, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas, McMaster University, and more, have been using the virtual labs to do things like examine organisms under a microscope, sequence DNA, and more. Using VR, students can even see things on a deeper level. For example, Google describes being able to manipulate DNA at the molecular level, or visiting other planets and determining whether or not they could be a potential habitat for humans. Without a time limit, students can do things like review theories and techniques without the pressure of being on the clock.
Of course, it’s likely not everything about the new partnership will be perfect. We’ll have to wait and see exactly how useful the virtual labs really are. It’s likely that the virtual labs won’t be quite as versatile as a real lab, in that they’re limited by what Labster has built into them — but that doesn’t mean they won’t be extremely helpful for learning about certain aspects of science.
Still, it’s likely that the labs will only get better over time, and the fact that there is 30 of them available isn’t insignificant. It’s very likely that the number of labs will continue to grow, meaning that the helpfulness of these virtual labs will only expand further.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.