Nvidia GEForce GTX 1060 Brings Beefy GPU Power At An Affordable Price

If you held off on upgrading graphics cards until this year, then you should be congratulating yourself, as it’s turned out to be the best time to beef up your desktop gaming rig with high-powered GPUs coming out at highly accessible price points. I mean, a VR-ready GPU for $200? While the Nvidia GEForce GTX 1060 doesn’t quite match that price, it’s still a highly-affordable option for the power it brings to the table.

The most affordable card built on the outfit’s new 16-nanometer Pascal architecture, the new GPU boasts equivalent speed to Nvidia’s previous GTX 980 flagship, all while coming in at less than half the price. That’s pretty wild, allowing you to step up your gaming rig’s power without spending an inordinate amount.

The Nvidia GEForce GTX 1060 comes with 6GB of GDDR5 RAM, along with a clock speed of 1.7GHz. It’s open for overclocking, top, which Nvidia claims should boost it up to 2GHz. If you want to compare it to the two other GPUs using the Pascal architecture, the 1060 comes with 1,280 CUDA cores compared to 1,920 for the 1070 and 2,560 for the 1080. Yes, that’s a huge difference, but those two are also considerably more expensive. Of course, the card also integrates the simultaneous multi-projection technology that will enable it to handle VR without choking, so you can get your Oculus Rift or HTC Vive ready.

Slated to come out later this month, the Nvidia GEForce GTX 1060 is priced at $249.

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Swiftpoint Z Gaming Mouse Can Trigger 50 Different Actions

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the gaming mouse evolve into a peripheral with more than the left, right, and center buttons. It just makes it that much more useful for gaming. The Swiftpoint Z does the same thing but goes even further, throwing in a variety of sensors to give it even more control possibilities.

Armed with an accelerometer and gyroscope, the mouse can be used as a motion control device, with the ability to identify tilts, pivots, pitches, rolls, and yaws, turning it into a unique controller that can simulate flight, driving, and similar activities. It even comes with a three-axis extender, which, when placed under the mouse, allows you to move it with free-form control without having to take your arm off the desk.

Of course, the Swiftpoint Z gets extra buttons. That includes a pair of thumb buttons, two side buttons, a pair of finger buttons that flank the scroll wheel, and two trigger buttons designed to be pressed by the lower part of your fingers. If that’s not enough, they also throw in a force sensor, so it can sense how hard you’re clicking, enabling it to detect speed and force – information that can prove useful in both games and plenty of applications.

With the combination of gesture control and the additional buttons, the mouse can access over 50 different actions at any time, making it a veritable gamepad all on its own. Other features include 12,000 DPI resolution, rubber finger grips, RGB lighting on the logo, an OLED display on the side, and a braided cable.

A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Swiftpoint Z. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $149.

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Hyperkin Smart Boy Turns Your Android Phone Into A Modern Game Boy

Still hoarding the Game Boy cartridges of your youth for some reason you can’t quite explain? Well, the reason just presented itself in the form of the Hyperkin Smart Boy, a smartphone accessory that turns your powerful mobile device into a 90s-era video game handheld.

Originally conceived as an April Fool’s joke last year, the accessory seemed feasible enough that fan demand eventually convinced Hyperkin to actually produce the darn thing. And, yes, it’s coming this year with the same familiar buttons and taking the same familiar cartridges as the old handheld, all while playing everything on a modern high-res screen.

The Hyperkin Smart Boy docks your phone (Android only) in the integrated enclosure (where it plugs into a double-side micro-USB port), leaving only the top half of the screen for use by the companion app, which should put it a lot closer to the Game Boy’s original tiny display. A cartridge slot in the back takes both original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, so you can use it to play any games you’ve decided to hold on to for the last 20 years. It uses the same D-pad and four-button ensemble from the original console, so this should provide an authentic retro-gaming experience.

Do note, the upcoming release isn’t aimed at general consumers, as the software will be functional but half-baked. Instead, Hyperkin is aiming this at developers (complete with an open-source serial app and firmware), with the hope that the community will help fine-tune the software before releasing a final retail version.

Slated for availability on December, the Hyperkin Smart Boy is priced at $59.99.

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These Vi Earphones Come With An AI Personal Trainer

The natural evolution of activity tracking is a personal coach that feeds you real-time workout instructions and we’ve already seen several attempts to provide just that. Vi, however, takes it a step further by integrating a learning artificial intelligence into its activity tracking headphones to provide you with coaching that’s tailored to your training history and real-time performance.

More than a coach that barks instructions in your ears, though, Vi is actually designed for interactions. We're not entirely sure what kind of interactions you can have, but we're hoping you can complain about the workout and have it tweak things just a bit to accommodate your lack of willpower in real time. I mean, that's a life-like coach if they can pull that off.

Vi consists of a neckband with a pair of Harman Kardon earphones tethered to it. The neckband houses the various inputs and sensors for general activity tracking (measures speed, cadence, elevation, and so on), although the earbuds also integrate additional sensors for measuring heart rate and heart rate variability (they only measure if you pop them in your ear, though). Do note, it needs to be paired with the companion app (iOS and Android) to get the full experience (tracking and coaching), so you’ll have to bring your phone along during every workout.

Features include a battery life of 8 hours, Google Kit and Apple Health Kit compatibility, wind and noise filtering, and the ability to create workout plans based on your goals and previous performances. For the launch, Vi will only support running (and variations like brisk walking), with other activities set to be added as software updates over time.

A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for Vi. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $199.

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Lenovo Phab2 Pro Brings Google’s Tango Technology To The World

If you’ve ever seen the various demos of Google’s Project Tango technology, then you have a pretty good idea of how impressive its potential applications are. Problem is, we haven’t quite had a proper hardware to play around with the tech. That changes with the release of the Lenovo Phab2 Pro, the first ever smartphone to fulfill Project Tango’s sensor and camera requirements.

Armed with Google’s spatially-aware camera tech, the phone uses a 16-megapixel camera to see its surroundings in 3D with precise depth perception, all while relying on extra sensors to monitor location and nearby objects. Those sensors perform the check at a rate of 250,000 times per second, so even minute movements and changes will immediately be registered by the system. With the tech onboard, it’s fully capable of performing all of Tango’s impressive tricks, from accurately measuring a room to augmented reality guided tours, among others.

We imagine calling the Lenovo Phab2 Pro a phone is a bit of a gray area, considering the darn thing has a screen measuring a whopping 6.4 inches. Naturally, it comes with some serious processing power, including an eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 CPU, 64GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD), and 4GB of RAM. With the large size also comes a large 4,050mAh battery, although with everything the phone has to run, we’re guessing runtime won’t be that far off from other units. Features include a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, an SD card slot, two SIM slots, an 8 megapixel front-facing camera, Dolby Atmos audio, and the usual roster of connectivity features.

Slated to arrive in September, the Lenovo Phab2 Pro is priced at $499.

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SteelSeries Rival 700 Mouse Adds Tactile And Visual Alerts To Your PC Gaming

We’re not sure if it will make any measurable difference in your game, but the SteelSeries Rival 700’s unique features should add an entirely different dimension to any PC gamer’s arsenal. Armed with the ability to provide various types of notifications, it offers a unique way to increase your awareness of the numerous things going on in any game.

Sporting facilities for both tactile and visual alerts, this gaming mouse should bring an entirely new tool at disposal. Even better, you can choose which in-game events trigger alerts and what kind of alerts you’re provided (e.g. you can make it vibrate twice when a cooldown period is over), so you can customize every aspect of the feedback, ensuring you only get the information you require.

The SteelSeries Rival 700 comes with tactile alerts (just like console gamepads) that cause vibration at the central part of the mouse, which you should feel strongly right on your palm. It restricts the vibration to that singular area, so at no point will it impact the mouse’s tracking, ensuring it won’t cause unwanted in-game actions. You can customize both the pattern and duration of each vibration, so you can program different alerts for different events, essentially serving as an intelligent feedback mechanism to help inform your in-game decision-making.

Aside from vibrations, the mouse also comes with an OLED display on the side, which you can use to show stats, settings, and other pertinent information, all of which are customizable, too. Other features include a Pixart 3360 optical sensor, reinforced plastic click buttons, double-injected rubber side grips, and swappable cables of different lengths.

Available now, the SteelSeries Rival 700 is priced at $99.99.

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These Blips Mini Lenses Can Turn Any Smartphone Into A Microscope

Blips aren’t the only add-on lenses to turn a smartphone into a microscope. With an ultra-thin size, high levels of magnification, and ultra-clear optics, though, it just may offer the best solution for anyone on the hunt for a low-cost magnification system.

Designed for easy installation, the lenses are integrated into a thin strip that looks like a small piece of tape. Using electrostatic charge, the strip can easily be taped over your smartphone camera’s existing lens, immediately turning it into a powerful digital microscope. Even better, they can be removed and reapplied at any time, making for a truly handy tool for students, amateur scientists, and micro-photographyenthusiasts.

Two lenses come in each pack of Blips – a 0.5mm macro lens for observing minuscule objects in motion (like alien bacteria) and a 1.2mm micro lens for high levels of magnification. Because the lenses are so thin, you don’t even have to remove them from your phone, as it can still slip into your pants pocket without any extra bulge. It can work with any brand or model of smartphone, although the actual magnification will depend on how the phone camera’s sensor and lenses are configured, with the macro getting up to 15x magnification and the micro providing up to 30x.

Do note, you’ll need to clean both the phone camera and the add-on lenses after a few uses to ensure both high levels of adherence and maximum clarity. When not in use, the lenses can be kept in the included storage card, which is sized to fit conveniently in a wallet’s card pouch.

A Kickstarter campaign is currently running to fund Blips. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at €20.

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