The future. Tis upon us. And once again, it’s gaming that’s paving the way. This week at E3, Bethesda Softworks announced Orion. What’s Orion? It’s “a patented collection of software technologies that optimize game engines for superior performance in a streaming environment.” For gamers, this brings ‘imperceptible latency’ to, not just one game engine but, any game engine. Even more, it brings it to the highly-anticipated, yet-to-be-release Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud. It’s all coming together in what Jessica Conditt over at Engadget has rightly called “The Era Of The Stream”. “Wasn’t Netflix the Era of the Stream?” Well, perhaps it started there. Google and Microsoft are bringing it to…

Swedish furniture company Ikea has been on a problem-solving roll lately. After working on 3D printed gaming chairs for sensitive rears and the more recent ThisAbles project which features accessible furniture for the disabled, the company now has its sights set on helping those lacking personal space in small urban dwellings. ROGNAN is an upcoming collaboration between Ikea and American furniture startup Ori Living which makes full use of a tiny room’s dimensions. At first glance, it looks a large storage unit which you install in the center of a room. But, when using the touchpad controls, homeowners can transform the area into a bedroom, workspace, closet, or living room…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight…

Liniments and soliloquies permeated the ground cover. From whence did the oily salves and voices emanate? The shutter beneath the leaves were a sure sign they were below, and getting closer, ever after the sweet, syrupy, mesmerizing blinks of these links. Philipp Dobrusin – Got to love Philipp’s art of story telling. This concept artist and illustrator passionate has a knack with castles and the dreary. Jarren Frame – lookout for this young South African-born painter’s first solo show in New York City. Focused on James Bond and called ‘Bond, James Bond’, the art is mindblowing! Slightly NSFW. Pixelixir – Chicago-based Pixelixir have adorable 8-bit pixel art house plants, ideal for video gamers…

3D Platform has produced a rather large 3D printer, the WorkCenter 500 – and the build volume on this beast is substantial, at 1400 x 2800 x 700 mm (55″ x 110″ x 27″), or 2.7 cubic meters (95 cubic feet) of volume. It should be able to accommodate the needs of many large part-makers. I know what you’re thinking: this is just another scaled-up desktop 3D printer. What’s the big deal? Well, you may be surprised. The WorkCenter 500 has three very interesting features that 3D Platform has developed over the past few years of building and selling large-format 3D printers. 1. PETG and Nylon Materials One innovation is…

Here’s your fun fact for today: unlike data-encoding electronics that utilize an electron’s negative charge to store data, spin electronics (or ‘spintronics”, for short) use the electron’s natural motion and magnetic properties around an atom to encode and store data. Up until now, physicists have only been able to move electrons around a single atomic layer; drastically limiting their ability to process, encode, and store data. But with the recent discovery by a team of physicists led by colleagues at the University of Glasgow, humans can now transfer information from one electromagnetic layer to another. This breakthrough in spintronics not only puts it on par with electronics, but gives it…