Latest news with #Pong
Scottish Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
Aldi is selling a £5 golf gift that's perfect for Father's Day
Find out what else is on offer this week ALDI is swinging in with a £4.99 gift set that's perfect for golf-mad dads this Father's Day. The budget-friendly supermarket is now offering a Golf Gift Set, perfect for dads who are serious about their time on the green. Advertisement 2 Aldi is selling a gold set and it's perfect for Father's Day 2 The set retails for £4.99 The bundle is packed with must-have golf essentials, including three golf balls, three wooden tees, and a stylish ball marker. Shoppers can choose between designs tailored for dads or grandads, making it a thoughtful gift for any golf enthusiast. It's the perfect option for the dad who already has more socks and T-shirts than he knows what to do with. The golf set is part of Aldi's limited-time Specialbuys range, so you'll need to act fast - once they're gone, they're gone. Advertisement But that's not all. Aldi is also offering a Golf Pong Set for just £34.99, adding a playful twist to Father's Day celebrations. The set includes a 6mm artificial putting green with a non-slip backing, golf balls, and hole covers - essentially everything you need for the perfect indoor or outdoor golf game. Similar sets online will cost you a small fortune, we found one on Ubuy for an eye-watering £200. Advertisement That makes Aldi's version an incredible bargain, saving you £165. However, Aldi isn't the only retailer delivering great gifts this Father's Day. Aldi is selling a cheap $4.49 item that will transform your garden into a colorful summer paradise Popular sports retailer American Golf has dropped prices across its range, including a 3-for-2 deal on golf balls, equipment, and even practice nets. Their exclusive Benross set is now £140 off, making it a budget-friendly yet premium choice. Advertisement This high-quality set is perfect for dads who are just starting to perfect their swing. And if your old man prefers chocolate to chipping, Amazon's got a sweet deal on a Cadbury's Dairy Milk 'Big Night In' hamper, down from £15.07 to £9.99 in its new Everyday Essentials Week sale. Meanwhile, Aldi is catering to every type of dad - with a Beer Dispenser for only £24.99 and Sandwich Makers, also priced at £24.99. Shoppers will even be able to find a new range of Le Creuset dupes that father figures are sure to love. Advertisement Of course, if you're looking to keep things personal this year, don't forget a handmade gift goes a long way. We've rounded up some of the best DIY ideas to show Dad just how much he means – without spending a fortune.
Scottish Sun
14-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
I tried Meta's Orion hologram glasses to SEE apps in mid-air – they're so good I'm convinced we'll all bin our phones
A FUTURE without phones feels much more real now that I've donned Mark Zuckerberg's latest pair of sci-fi specs. I took a trip to Meta's London HQ to try on the Orion holographic smart glasses – letting you see a virtual world all around you, rather than through a tiny phone screen. 15 The Sun's tech editor Sean Keach goes hands-on (and eyes-on) with Meta's futuristic Orion glasses Credit: Sean Keach 15 The Orion holographic smart glasses let you see apps floating in front of you Credit: Sean Keach 15 It turns the world around you into a giant computer screen Credit: Meta First off: this is NOT a virtual reality headset. You can see the real world through the lenses – with some apps overlaid holographically. You're not looking at a simulation or video feed. Orion looks like regular glasses, but a little thicker. It reminds me of the 3D glasses you're handed at the cinema. We first heard about Orion last year at Meta Connect, when Zuckerberg showed a prototype off on stage. That same day, I sat down with his second-in-command and VR boss Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth who told me the specs might not just replace your phone but TVs and buttons in your home too. Trying them on during a demo in London, this futuristic vision starts to make sense. EYE LIKE IT You spend a bit of time calibrating the eye-tracking (look up, look left, so on). And you strap on a wristband that lets you make subtle hand gesture to control the specs. So if you want to bring up the app menu, you'd just touch your middle finger into your palm facing up. And to click something on screen, you just point your eyeballs at it and click your index finger and thumb together. You don't even have to raise your hand to be in view of cameras. It's the wristband doing the work, so you can leave your hand resting by your side. Neat. Scrolling works by balling your hand up into a fist and then rubbing your thumb against the edge of your finger. Meta's top VR boss predicts AI-powered future with no phones, brain-controlled ovens and virtual TVs that only cost $1 It all feels very natural. These apps float in front of you, and feel very familiar. It's like a computer screen in the air. You've got Instagram and WhatsApp (both owned by Meta, of course), which work well. I did a video call where I saw the other person hovering before my very eyes. I send a text with my voice using the built-in microphones, and browse the web too. You can have multiple apps open at once, so you can text a pal while watching YouTube, for instance. I'm also very impressed by the gaming on the glasses. I played a game of Pong with a Meta staffer. We use our hands to knock a virtual ball between us. She wins comfortably. I am emotionally crushed – but impressed nonetheless. 15 These hi-tech specs were first shown off by billionaire tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg during his Meta Connect event in late 2024 Credit: Meta 15 You control the glasses by performing simple hand gestures Credit: Sean Keach 15 I played a game of Pong that was floating in mid-air – and it was great fun Credit: Meta It won't win any gaming awards mind, but it's a nice demo of the potential of a device like this. The proper VR table tennis games on Meta's virtual reality goggles are far more impressive, so you can imagine something more like that arriving on these specs one day too. A more thrilling game let me control a spaceship to blast alien baddies out of the sky. Moving my head controlled the motion of the spaceship, while eye-tracking let me aim at enemies – firing missiles with finger taps. I could've played it for hours. Sadly my future as a starship pilot is once again locked behind closed doors at Meta HQ. 15 A smart wristband can tell when you're moving your hand – relaying controls to the glasses Credit: Sean Keach NO PHONEY What strikes me during the session is that I've scrolled Instagram, taken a video call, watched a YouTube video, sent a text message, and played a game – all without having to touch my phone. There's a friction with having to drag your phone out. The delay of having to pull it out when you want to navigate somewhere, or take a photo, or quickly search something adds a hundred micro-annoyances to your day. God only knows how people who live in skinny jeans must feel. These specs basically resolve that problem completely. It's hard to imagine much that they couldn't do that only your phone can. Manually typing without voice? Playing a game that relies on touch? The list is thin. 15 The Orion glasses are just a prototype for now – with a real consumer version still four to five years away Credit: Sean Keach 15 The prototype specs are packed with groundbreaking tech Credit: Meta It's also worth noting that the visual quality of the glasses is pretty decent. This isn't crystal-clear in the way that the pricey Apple Vision Pro is, but that's a full-blown headset. But it's easy to read text and watch videos without straining. If you're watching a beautiful movie, you'll still want to stick to a regular TV. In the future though? Upgraded visuals might kill the telly completely. META'S ORION – THE VISION Here's how Meta describes its own gadget... "Orion offers a glimpse into the future of human connection. "At Meta, we continually strive to break down the barriers between the digital world and the real world. "While not available to the public, the breakthroughs from this internal product are rapidly ushering in the next generation of computing and a paradigm shift in how we communicate with one another. "The culmination of effort from thousands of passionate individuals, countless hours of research and development, and extensive challenges overcome – Orion pushes the limits of what it means to connect to each other and to the world around us." Picture Credit: Meta AI AM HUNGRY I also get to use the AI element of the glasses. The specs feature built-in Meta AI, which is a chatbot you can control with your voice. I look at some ingredients on a table, and ask for a recipe out loud. Meta uses the built-in camera and correctly identifies the oats, bananas, cacao, chia seeds plus a few other bits – and tells me how to cook up a posh porridge. 15 The smart band sits snugly around your wrist, monitoring for subtle movements Credit: Sean Keach 15 You can use built-in cameras and Meta AI to ask about the world around you The recipe appears in mid-air, and I can click through to follow along with it. I can even keep it up while I cook. Cleverly, the floating window is placed above the table – and to the right of a lamp. That way, it doesn't block anything important. I'm told this isn't by chance, but a design choice. It's smart. In fact, these floating windows get even smarter, because they have 'persistence'. So if I put up a YouTube video on my kitchen wall, then pop out to the shop and come back, it will still be there in the same spot. Of course there's nothing actually on my wall. But in this virtual layer over the real world, anything goes. All the computing is handled by a small pod (a little smaller than a Beats Pill speaker, or roughly the size of a glasses case). 15 A computing pack needs to stay within range of the glasses for the system to work Credit: Sean Keach 15 It's possible to multi-task with several floating windows open at once Credit: Meta You can move about 30 feet from the pod, so you'll want to keep it on or near you. This helps to keep the weight of the glasses themselves down, and it seems like a fair trade-off. You could imagine one day a phone (or phone-like object) serving this purpose. COMING SOON(-ISH) So when can you get a pair? Well Meta tells me a proper consumer version is about four or five years away. And I can't imagine they'll be cheap. Meta has chucked billions at developing these prototypes, and it will want a decent return. The company has flogged VR headsets for hundreds and even thousands, so the pricing of these specs is anyone's guess. Ultimately, Meta will be hoping to make these glasses better, lighter, slimmer, and price-attractive for people with each version. And once we start reaching version four or five of this product, it's going to be be a serious contender for replacing a smartphone. 15 You can move around freely with the glasses – and they'll remember where you've placed virtual windows Credit: Sean Keach Even in their current state, I can think of many tasks (video calls, quick internet searches, texting, and checking social media) that would be much easier to do on the glasses versus dragging my giant mobile out of pocket. I can't give a proper verdict on Orion because it's not a final product. It doesn't have a release date or a price, and it's still far from being complete. But when I use Orion, I feel very deeply that it makes sense as a gadget. Accessing computers in this way feels a lot more free. Smartphones are limiting because you're capped at one specific screen size and shape. Orion basically turns your entire world into a computer. And if that sounds terrifying, don't worry: you can always just take them off.
The Irish Sun
14-05-2025
- The Irish Sun
I tried Meta's Orion hologram glasses to SEE apps in mid-air – they're so good I'm convinced we'll all bin our phones
A FUTURE without phones feels much more real now that I've donned Mark Zuckerberg's latest pair of sci-fi specs. I took a trip to Meta's London HQ to try on the Orion holographic smart glasses – letting you see a virtual world all around you, rather than through a 15 The Sun's tech editor Sean Keach goes hands-on (and eyes-on) with Meta's futuristic Orion glasses Credit: Sean Keach 15 The Orion holographic smart glasses let you see apps floating in front of you Credit: Sean Keach 15 It turns the world around you into a giant computer screen Credit: Meta First off: this is NOT a virtual reality headset. You can see the real world through the lenses – with some apps overlaid holographically. You're not looking at a simulation or video feed. Orion looks like regular glasses, but a little thicker. It reminds me of the 3D glasses you're handed at the cinema. We first heard about Orion last year at Meta Connect, when Trying them on during a demo in London, this futuristic vision starts to make sense. Read more on Meta EYE LIKE IT You spend a bit of time calibrating the eye-tracking (look up, look left, so on). And you strap on a wristband that lets you make subtle hand gesture to control the specs. So if you want to bring up the app menu, you'd just touch your middle finger into your palm facing up. And to click something on screen, you just point your eyeballs at it and click your index finger and thumb together. Most read in Phones & Gadgets You don't even have to raise your hand to be in view of cameras. It's the wristband doing the work, so you can leave your hand resting by your side. Neat. Scrolling works by balling your hand up into a fist and then rubbing your thumb against the edge of your finger. Meta's top VR boss predicts AI-powered future with no phones, brain-controlled ovens and virtual TVs that only cost $1 It all feels very natural. These apps float in front of you, and feel very familiar. It's like a computer screen in the air. You've got Instagram and WhatsApp (both owned by Meta, of course), which work well. I did a video call where I saw the other person hovering before my very eyes. I send a text with my voice using the built-in microphones, and browse the web too. You can have multiple apps open at once, so you can text a pal while watching YouTube, for instance. I'm also very impressed by the gaming on the glasses. I played a game of Pong with a Meta staffer. We use our hands to knock a virtual ball between us. She wins comfortably. I am emotionally crushed – but impressed nonetheless. 15 These hi-tech specs were first shown off by billionaire tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg during his Meta Connect event in late 2024 Credit: Meta 15 You control the glasses by performing simple hand gestures Credit: Sean Keach 15 I played a game of Pong that was floating in mid-air – and it was great fun Credit: Meta It won't win any gaming awards mind, but it's a nice demo of the potential of a device like this. The proper VR table tennis games on Meta's virtual reality goggles are far more impressive, so you can imagine something more like that arriving on these specs one day too. A more thrilling game let me control a spaceship to blast alien baddies out of the sky . Moving my head controlled the motion of the spaceship, while eye-tracking let me aim at enemies – firing missiles with finger taps. I could've played it for hours. Sadly my future as a starship pilot is once again locked behind closed doors at Meta HQ. 15 A smart wristband can tell when you're moving your hand – relaying controls to the glasses Credit: Sean Keach NO PHONEY What strikes me during the session is that I've scrolled Instagram, taken a video call, watched a There's a friction with having to The delay of having to pull it out when you want to navigate somewhere, or take a photo, or quickly search something adds a hundred micro-annoyances to your day. God only knows how people who live in skinny jeans must feel. These specs basically resolve that problem completely. It's hard to imagine much that they couldn't do that only your phone can. Manually typing without voice? Playing a game that relies on touch? The list is thin. 15 The Orion glasses are just a prototype for now – with a real consumer version still four to five years away Credit: Sean Keach 15 The prototype specs are packed with groundbreaking tech Credit: Meta It's also worth noting that the visual quality of the glasses is pretty decent. This isn't crystal-clear in the way that the pricey But it's easy to read text and watch videos without straining. If you're watching a beautiful movie, you'll still want to stick to a regular TV. In the future though? Upgraded visuals might kill the telly completely. META'S ORION – THE VISION Here's how Meta describes its own gadget... "Orion offers a glimpse into the future of human connection. "At Meta, we continually strive to break down the barriers between the digital world and the real world. "While not available to the public, the breakthroughs from this internal product are rapidly ushering in the next generation of computing and a paradigm shift in how we communicate with one another. "The culmination of effort from thousands of passionate individuals, countless hours of research and development, and extensive challenges overcome – Orion pushes the limits of what it means to connect to each other and to the world around us." Picture Credit: Meta AI AM HUNGRY I also get to use the AI element of the glasses. The I look at some ingredients on a table, and ask for a recipe out loud. Meta uses the built-in camera and correctly identifies the oats, bananas, cacao, chia seeds plus a few other bits – and tells me how to cook up a posh porridge. 15 The smart band sits snugly around your wrist, monitoring for subtle movements Credit: Sean Keach 15 You can use built-in cameras and Meta AI to ask about the world around you The recipe appears in mid-air, and I can click through to follow along with it. I can even keep it up while I cook. Cleverly, the floating window is placed above the table – and to the right of a lamp. That way, it doesn't block anything important. I'm told this isn't by chance, but a design choice. It's smart. In fact, these floating windows get even smarter, because they have 'persistence'. So if I put up a YouTube video on my kitchen wall, then pop out to the shop and come back, it will still be there in the same spot. Of course there's nothing actually on my wall. But in this virtual layer over the real world, anything goes. All the computing is handled by a small pod (a little smaller than a Beats Pill speaker, or roughly the size of a glasses case). 15 A computing pack needs to stay within range of the glasses for the system to work Credit: Sean Keach 15 It's possible to multi-task with several floating windows open at once Credit: Meta You can move about 30 feet from the pod, so you'll want to keep it on or near you. This helps to keep the weight of the glasses themselves down, and it seems like a fair trade-off. You could imagine one day a phone (or phone-like object) serving this purpose. COMING SOON(-ISH) So when can you get a pair? Well Meta tells me a proper consumer version is about four or five years away. And I can't imagine they'll be cheap. Meta has chucked billions at developing these prototypes, and it will want a decent return. The company has flogged VR headsets for hundreds and even thousands, so the pricing of these specs is anyone's guess. Ultimately, Meta will be hoping to make these glasses better, lighter, slimmer, and price-attractive for people with each version. And once we start reaching version four or five of this product, it's going to be be a serious contender for replacing a smartphone. 15 You can move around freely with the glasses – and they'll remember where you've placed virtual windows Credit: Sean Keach Even in their current state, I can think of many tasks (video calls, quick internet searches, texting, and checking social media) that would be much easier to do on the glasses versus dragging my giant mobile out of pocket. I can't give a proper verdict on Orion because it's not a final product. It doesn't have a release date or a price, and it's still far from being complete. But when I use Orion, I feel very deeply that it makes sense as a gadget. Accessing computers in this way feels a lot more free. Smartphones are limiting because you're capped at one specific screen size and shape. Orion basically turns your entire world into a computer. And if that sounds terrifying, don't worry: you can always just take them off. 15 Sadly I'll have to wait years to become a spaceship pilot Credit: Meta
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr.: Grandfather of Video Games
Space Invaders! Pong! Computer Space! Those are some of the video games that people might consider being the first video games produced. Those three, released in 1978, 1972 and 1971, respectively, however, are relatively late in the creation of the first video game. In fact, the first was actually patented in 1948, though it has somewhat been lost to history. Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. (1910–2009) was born in Greenville, South Carolina, to an insurance broker and a concert pianist. As a teenager, he became interested in radio technology, even building his own crystal radio sets, which were primitive radio signal receivers. Goldsmith grew up and began his career during what is considered the Golden Age of Physics. His passion for technology and physics led him to attend Furman University in his hometown of Greenville, where he earned his bachelor's degree in physics in 1931. He then earned his doctorate in physics from Cornell University in 1936. A Beneficial Relationship Two pages from "The Story of Television - DuMont Network," 1953, featuring an early television set and "the man who made it work," Allen B. Du Mont. Internet Archive. The Media Stash While Goldsmith was working on his doctorate, he contacted Allen B. Du Mont, a leading inventor and scientist, who had risen to prominence for his work on the cathode ray tube (CRT) for televisions. When Goldsmith purchased a cathode ray tube from Du Mont, it launched a lasting friendship and, eventually, a working relationship between the two. When Goldsmith completed his education at Cornell, Du Mont hired him as the director of research and development (R&D) for Du Mont Laboratories in Passaic, New Jersey. The company grew and sold a half interest to Paramount Pictures Corp. in 1938 in order to raise capital. By the following year, the company became the first to market home-based television sets. That same year, Du Mont Laboratories displayed their TV set at the New York World's Fair. However, with the outbreak of war in Europe, which began shortly after the start of the World's Fair, all production soon focused on creating oscillographs and conducting radar research. Time for Gaming Related Stories 5/27/2023 4/6/2024 Two men conducting electrical testing on a cathode-ray tube, circa whose time at Du Mont spanned into the 1960s, was, After the war ended, Du Mont Laboratories returned to producing TVs, and, In December 1947, Goldsmith and Mann submitted their patent application. They Gaming, TV, and Professorship The duo received a patent for their 'Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device' in December the following year. There were many roadblocks to producing the 'Amusement Device,' including cost, which kept it from being developed and mass produced. Patent for "The Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device." Public Domain Thompson, however, continued his very successful career, which included helping establish the TV visual standards with the Federal Communications Commission when he chaired the Synchronization Panel of the National Television System Committee (SPNTSC), and helping establish broadcast facilities for the new Du Mont Television Network. One facility was named after his initials, WTTG, which became the first television broadcasting station in Washington. The WTTG station continues to this day, now more commonly known as FOX 5 DC. In 1966, Thompson returned to his alma mater to become professor of physics, retiring as professor emeritus in 1975. He was a fellow with the Radio Club of America, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Along with chairing the SPNTSC, he also chaired the Radio Manufacturers Association Committee on Cathode-Ray Tubes during World War II, which set standards for radio manufacturing. It is interesting that the prediction about Thompson and Mann's 'Amusement Device' becoming 'more spectacular, and the interest therein both from the player's and the observer's standpoint can be increased' would become a reality. Although Thompson is rarely given credit for the video game breakthrough, he was indeed the first to create such a device that would eventually result in what is now a multibillion dollar industry, earning him the nickname of the Grandfather of Video Games. A Du Mont RA-101 "Custom": The wooden frame around the screen was probably added later instead of the original, as seen at the Early Television Museum. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
AU Financial Review
27-04-2025
- AU Financial Review
How gaming has supercharged this founder's career
Gordon Campbell is chief customer officer and co-founder of Rich Data Co (or RDC), an AI-driven credit-decisioning platform. He lives on the NSW Central Coast. When did you start gaming? It all got serious around 44 years ago – I turn 60 this year – in its initial PC-based form (a Dick Smith TRS-80, in fact). A few years before that, though, I was playing the legendary Pong via a box you plugged into a TV.
