Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Alpha smartphone has a full wrap-around LCD and 108MP camera
Facebook buys a company working on hardware to read your mind
Sony’s State of Play conference tells us what’s coming to our PlayStations soon
It’s been 20 years since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater launched
Cheap Audio-Technica headphones, refurb i5-4760 Lenovo PC, Synology DS918+ NAS, Sony bluetooth speaker, 20% off iTunes gift cards
Xiaomi has announced a new smartphone called the Mi Mix Alpha that has a screen-to-body ratio of 180%. You've gotta see the pictures of it for yourself - the screen wraps around both edges and comes around the back, leaving a 1cm strip for cameras on the rear. It's the Samsung Galaxy Edge (remember that?) on steroids and looks amazing. The party tricks don't stop there, as the Mi Mix Alpha also has a 108 megapixel camera using a 1/1.33" sensor. Massive for a smartphone. The Mi Mix Alpha will ship in China only in December, for RMB 19,999, which is around $4,200 Aussie dollars. That's the most expensive phone I've ever seen that hasn't got Vertu written on it.
CTRL-Labs is being acquired by Facebook for an undisclosed amount that Bloomberg reckons is between US$500m and US$1b. I've never heard of CTRL-Labs, but they've been around for four years, living off venture capital, developing "a bracelet to measure neuron activity in a subject's arm to determine movement that person is thinking about, even if they aren’t physically moving. That neuron activity is then translated into movement on a digital screen". I doubt it's even close to working properly and will probably never work, but Facebook purchased a company that's working on hardware that tries to read your mind. Hmm, can't spot anything wrong with that. Nope, all above board yes sir.
Sony let loose with a bunch of updates at its State of Play conference. The Last of Us Part II is coming in Feb 2020 and looks as amazing as you’d expect. The guy that made games like Rez and Tetris Effect has a new game called Humanity that's a "mix between Lemmings and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, but with some elegant visuals and interesting sound design". Wattam is a new game from the mad genius of one of my favourite games, Katamari Damacy. Fuck knows what's going on in Wattam, which is why it's so good. Civilization VI (along with the Rise & Fall and Gatherin Storm expansion packs) is coming to the PS4 and Xbox One on November 22nd. Possibly the shittest way to play Civ, but whatever floats ya boat.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was released 20 years ago earlier this September and The Guardian has a retrospective piece about the influential PlayStation game. It was a bigger hit than Activision hoped for, initially aiming for 250,000 copies, but ended up selling over 5 million. Tony Hawk was actively involved throughout the development process and got weekly game builds that he tested and provided feedback on. I personally loved the soundtrack of THPS, which exposed me to loads of music I would otherwise probably not have heard. In the article there's a few quotes from current pro skateboarders who say THPS was the reason they took up skateboarding.
Officeworks is joining Coles in selling iTunes gift cards for 20% off with free delivery
Audio-Technica SR9 headphones - $389 from PC Case Gear
Refurbished Lenovo M93p desktop PC (i5-4760 CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD) - $179.10 from Bneacttrader's eBay store
Synology DS918+ NAS - $594.15 from Smarthomestoreau's eBay Store
Sony SRSXB01 portable Bluetooth speaker - $24 at Big W (or $20 at Aldi if your local has some left)
🎶 Lounge Act - Nirvana
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