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Geoffrey Morrison | Jan 16, 2015 |

I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you. I'm sorry to your loved ones. I'm sorry to your coworkers and friends.

I'm about to show you something that will steal countless hours from your relationships, work, and free time. What free time. It's all this.

Behold, 2,300 games that will give you all the nostalgia, for free, in your browser.

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Cowboy Bebop Blu-ray Box Set Review

Geoffrey Morrison | Jan 02, 2015 |

Though released multiple times on disc, Cowboy Bebop gets a new release on Blu-ray, with a new transfer, mix and features.

This show is… something else. Easily in my top 5 TV shows of all time, it’s a magical blend of action, story, characters, setting, and music.

Oh the music. The music is why you should buy this.

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Star Citizen: Arena Commander 1.0

Geoffrey Morrison | Dec 23, 2014 |

It’s been a while since I last talked about Star Citizen, and there have been many, many interesting changes and improvements, not least the Arena Commander, version 1.0.

The addition of several newly flyable ships and variants is cool, but it’s the ongoing changes and tweaks to the flight model that are most impressive.

So here’s a look at SC now, and where it’s headed…

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Using Technology to Achieve Zen for the Holidays

Lauren Dragan | Dec 19, 2014 |

There is technology to track your activity, track your diet, track your work, track your email, track your sleep, track your social life, and just about anything else you want to quantify. But there aren’t many gadgets that teach you something, and even fewer that teach you how to relax. Last year in my New Year roundup, I mentioned the development of a new meditation headband, Muse, that promised to evaluate your brain activity and coach you into a meditative state. Well, it’s finally available, and I just had to try it. Does Muse help you achieve nirvana?

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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review

Lauren Dragan | Dec 12, 2014 |

Tolkien fans, fantasy nerds, and Jackson completists will be out in droves December 17th to witness the final chapter of the Hobbit series: The Battle of the Five Armies. Closing out Bilbo’s story as well as setting up Frodo’s Lord of the Rings is no easy task, and Peter Jackson manages to capture every moment of the battles described in Tolkien’s tome, and then some.

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Fractured Space Preview

Geoffrey Morrison | Dec 07, 2014 |

Once upon a time, space sims were huge. Freespace, X-Wing (and it’s offshoots), Wing Commander, and others dominated store shelves and playtime, the genre has shrunk to a tiny fraction of what it was. While there are some popular titles (Star Citizen being notable), there aren’t that many options.

Fewer still are the options for real-time combat with large ships. Independence War is largely forgotten, but most space combat sims these days focus either on fighter-sized craft, or the slow tactical-style combat of Eve.

Fractured Space is sort of a 3rd person shooter, but with huge capital ships. It’s currently on Steam Early Access, so I had a look.

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Alien: Isolation… Not on the Oculus Rift

Geoffrey Morrison | Nov 29, 2014 |

A few weeks ago I wrote about the experience of playing Alien: Isolation on the Oculus Rift. It is, without a doubt, incredible.

However, it is a bit of a hassle, and as

So I switched over and started playing Alien

awesome as the Rift is, it’s still pre-production and lacks the sort of seamlessness I hope to find in the final product. on my regular gaming rig: A 102-inch screen and 5.1 surround system. So this is about the game. Because it’s worth talking about.

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Parrot Zik 2.0: So Much Potential, Potentially Wasted Lauren Dragan | Nov 21, 2014 |

I am not a luddite. I love buttons that make things happen. I love touch screens, I love customization, I love the newest thing. So it would only seem natural that I would love the newest addition to the Parrot family, the Zik 2.0 headphones. They are a tinkerer’s headphone. Touchpad earcups, customizable sound, active noise cancellation, Bluetooth… if there’s a headphone feature available, the Zik 2.0 have it. And yet, despite all of these wonderful features, I can’t recommend them. And it breaks my heart.

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Alien Isolation on the Oculus Rift Geoffrey Morrison | Nov 14, 2014 |

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, I bought one of the Development Kits for the Oculus Rift VR headset. It was a bit of a hassle to get running (and still is), but when you do… damn.

One of the standout games that currently works (more or less) with the Rift, is the new Alien Isolation, a sort of survival/horror/action game set in the Alien universe.

My advice to anyone trying this combo: wear diapers.

Here’s why.

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Ultimate Ears: An Inside Look at the Making of In-Ear Monitors

Lauren Dragan | Nov 07, 2014 |

In-ear custom monitors are generally considered the gold standard for performers and audio professionals. And it makes sense; monitors are one of the only pieces of equipment that are made just for your anatomy and nobody else’s. The process of going from fitting to final product has remained largely unchanged for years: a painstaking, labor-intensive process.

Ultimate Ears is working on streamlining their workflow with the addition of 3D scanning, editing and printing. It’s working: what used to take three weeks, now can be done in one. But monitors at Ultimate Ears still take a shocking amount of craftsmanship and skill to make, and I got to take a tour of their facility in southern California to see just how it’s all done. Wanna see? Check this out!

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Oculus Rift: The Future of Home Entertainment

Geoffrey Morrison | Nov 02, 2014 |

The Oculus Rift is the first virtual reality headset that actually works. Every person I’ve met that’s tried it experienced something between impressed shock and mind-blown awe. Since I first tried an early prototype two years ago it has improved dramatically.

Loving both the idea and the, ahem, reality of it, I bought one… sort of. Called a Development Kit, you can get one now too if you want. It’s not the final product, but it works.

So here’s my experience with a Rift at home.

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A Look Beyond the Bling at LA's Luxury Tech Show

Lauren Dragan | Oct 17, 2014 |

At the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, the west coast edition of the Luxury Tech Show was filled with gold phones, automated homes, and personal drones. Here’s a roundup of some of the more unusual offerings on display.

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Electrostatic… Bluetooth?

Geoffrey Morrison | Oct 11, 2014 |

Electrostatic speakers might not be the most obvious drivers to use in a Bluetooth speaker, but that’s exactly what BenQ has done with the eVolo.

Wait… BenQ? That BenQ?

Yep, that BenQ. All the info after the jump.

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Bose @ 50: A Look at The Legacy, and What’s Next

Lauren Dragan | Oct 03, 2014 |

This week, at a massive loft space in NYC, the people of Bose constructed a temporary museum of sorts: an impressive array of both consumer technology and fascinating prototypes, chronicling the company’s history. Bose is celebrating its50th anniversary, an accomplishment for any company, but especially in technology, a field where so many businesses launch with great fanfare only to sink into obscurity. Built on the shoulders of engineer, MIT professor, inventor, and entrepreneur Dr. Amar Bose, the Bose corporation began with a single product, the pod-looking Bose 2201. The 2201 screams 1960s design aesthetic. With its burlap-esque fabric and wooden housing, it’s fun to imagine what stereophiles thought of this unique and bizarre design in a sea of rectangle and square speakers.

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No Add App Takes Art Literally Underground

Lauren Dragan | Sep 25, 2014 |

After attending the phenomenal David Bowie exhibit at the Chicago MCA last week, I’m finding myself acutely aware of how much I miss regular access to art. As a college student studying music, and even as a high schooler fortunate enough to attend fantastic humanities classes, every day had some form of exposure to artistic endeavors. But once out of school, if we want to experience art, we have to seek it out. While we have plenty of access to media, one could argue that art is a bit tougher to come by. Of course, there are galleries to visit, which is wonderful and needs to be preserved, but unlike school, art no longer comes to you.

A few artists have come together to try to change all that. They took two things New Yorkers have encounters with daily: technology and advertisements, and created an innovative augmented reality art space...the NY subway station.

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