Show Notes: coder.show/468

The post Coding to Make It | Coder Radio 468 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Google+ is going to be broken up into “Streams”. We’ll detail what we know at this point, who is saying what & speculate about the future of Google+ a bit.

Plus NVIDIA has a new 4k TV console, Valve announces Steam Machine ship dates, VR details & their new Steam Link set top.

Direct Download:

MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | HD Video | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

MP3 Feed | OGG Feed | iTunes Feed | Video Feed | Video Feed | Torrent Feed

Become a supporter on Patreon

Show Notes:

Shield: NVIDIA’s $200 gaming-focused Android TV set-top box

NVIDIA’s calling Shield the “world’s first 4K Android TV” — it’s able to both stream and locally run 4K content to your fawncy 4K television. How does it do that? It uses a bleeding edge X1 chip — the most powerful mobile processor NVIDIA’s made to date.

It’s going to push that 4K content via HDMI out back, and pull down streamed 4K content via Gigabit Ethernet. Need some extra storage? You might, as it’s only got 16GB of internal stores. Good news: It’s got a microSD expansion port and two USB 3.0 ports for an external HDD. You’ll need some extra storage with all those huge video files.

Valve announces streaming box and SteamVR for November – PC Gamer

Steam Machines from Alienware and Falcon Northwest are at GDC, with Steam Machines being released this November.

• Valve’s Steam Machines Will Officially Launch In November

The new Pebble smartwatch is now the most-funded project in Kickstarter history – Quartz

In one week, Pebble’s new Time smartwatch has become the most “funded” project in Kickstarter history, approaching $14 million in pre-orders. The watch project generated more than $9 million in pre-orders on its first day alone, and has slowly been making its way up the chart all week.

What may have boosted it: Pebble announced today that it will also be producing a more expensive “Steel” version of the watch. Within a few hours, the Pebble Time broke the record, dethroning the Coolest Cooler, a cooler that has a built-in blender and speakers.

Google+ is about to be broken up – Mar. 2, 2015

The search giant’s tepidly embraced social network is going to reorganize around its two standout products — photos and hangouts — as well as a newly named social feed called “streams,” Google’s (GOOGL, Tech30) product chief Sundar Pichai said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,

Pichai didn’t give a timeline for when Google+ will be rebranded. A spokesman for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• The snake sheds a skin: Why Google is splitting up Google+ | The Drum

Bradley Horowitz Is Now Running Google+ | TechCrunch

Horowitz has confirmed our reporting in a carefully worded Google+ update that does not mention Hangouts, or even Google+ by name, but instead refers to Photos and Streams. This points to the idea of Google+ being split into dedicated services, two of which Horowitz will oversee:

“Just wanted to confirm that the rumors are true — I’m excited to be running Google’s Photos and Streams products! It’s important to me that these changes are properly understood to be positive improvements to both our products and how they reach users.”

• Why Google+ is being divided

Did Google+ fail? According to that message, perhaps,” one former Google+ employee told me recently. “But that’s not the relevant question: Is Google in a better position today to provide identity services across products? Yes.”

The post Google Minus | Tech Talk Today 139 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Razer impresses with an open source VR headset & their new “micro-console” at CES. We’ll tell you all about them, plus portable SSD’s & Dell’s new fancy edge-to-edge laptop.

Direct Download:

MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | HD Video | Torrent | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

MP3 Feed | OGG Feed | iTunes Feed | Video Feed | Video Feed | Torrent Feed

Become a supporter on Patreon

Show Notes:

Razer is launching an open-source VR headset this year

This year, Razer’s announcing an open-source software and hardware initiative known as “OSVR.”

That acronym stands for — you guessed it — “Open-Source Virtual Reality.”

Razer is releasing every detail of its virtual reality headset and the software that makes it work as open-source, enabling developers, makers and other enterprising individuals to create their own versions. The company’s also making and selling its own “Hacker Dev Kit”, set to debut sometime between now and June.

Razer Unveils Its $100 Android-Powered Gaming Console, Razer Forge TV

The Razer Forge TV is a micro-console, 4×4 inches and selling for $100, and Razer hopes it will give the company three new routes into your living room: as a platform for hardcore PC gaming, for Android gaming, and for Android-based entertainment services via Google Play. The Razer Forge TV is due out in Q1.

It has quad-core processing (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805; Quad-Core Krait 450 CPU – 2.5 GHz per core); a high-end graphics engine (Adreno 420 GPU

Wireless and network connectivity; 16 GB of internal storage and 2 GB of RAM.

On the non-gaming front, the Forge TV will also work as an entertainment hub, letting users stream music, videos and other apps, and photos to their televisions.

External hard drives? Pfah! Samsung just launched external SSDs

Samsung’s 250GB external SSD is priced at $179.99, a 500GB drive is $299.99, and a 1TB drive is $599.99.

The Portable SSD T1 drives will connect to a PC’s USB 3.0 port. The SSDs have sequential read and write speeds of 450MB per second, random read speeds of 8,000 IOPS (input/output per second) and random write speeds of 21,000 IOPS.

Dell’s new XPS 13 has a stunning edge-to-edge display

2015’s XPS 13 will ship with an even better and truly beautiful 13.3-inch “infinity” display. It has an incredibly tiny 5.2mm bezel on the top and sides. While previous models of the XPS 13 have always had an impressively small bezel, the latest feels truly edge-to-edge, and it’s dazzling to look at. Dell hasn’t just stopped at thin bezels, though, and the 2015 model now has an optional 3200 x 1800 high-resolution touchscreen display. That’s a massive improvement over the 1366 x 768 resolution we disliked on the original.

Dell is claiming the new XPS 13 is the “smallest 13-inch laptop on the planet,” thanks primarily to the 13.3-inch borderless display that’s squeezed into an 11-inch size laptop

The post Dell’s CES Comeback | Tech Talk Today 113 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.