New Atlas

ARCHITECTURE Luxury treehouse built for fun in the forest The recently-completed Woodsman's Treehouse offers the benefits of getting in touch with nature without requiring its occupants to rough it. Boasting luxury features like a sauna and hot tub, the architect-designed vacation home also has a fun slide for those who want to make a quick exit.   Read more VR 2016 VR Comparison Guide This year will mark the first holiday season where kids young and old could be unwrapping gifts with virtual reality systems inside. It’s New Atlas’ 2016 VR Comparison Guide.   Read more ARCHITECTURE Glowing concert hall is a symphony of visual and audio design When you're one of the world's top symphony orchestras, it's only right that you should play in one of the world's best concert halls. That was the basis upon which MAD Architects worked when designing a new translucent, glowing, lotus-flower-inspired home for the China Philharmonic Orchestra.  Read more SPACE New Horizons forecasts clouds on Pluto ​It's been over a year since new Horizon's flyby of Pluto in July 2015, but it continues to send back data from that brief encounter. Evidence from the probe indicates the dwarf planet may have clouds and that its next destination may be more like Pluto than previously thought.   Read more COMPUTERS Keyboard acoustics could let hackers untangle typed text through Skype A new study cautions against typing while Skyping. By analyzing the acoustic signals of key presses, hackers may be able to untangle typed text through the clickety-clack of a keyboard itself, with an alarming accuracy of over 90 percent.​​   Read more VR Not just for gamers: Gear VR is educational, evocative Proponents say VR is poised for expansion into our work, social lives and education. Today, mobile VR offers the most accessible glimpse into that future. Learn a thing or two from these leading GearVR experiences, and while you’re at it, ascertain a few things about the state of the industry.   Read more MEDICAL Smartphone sensor spots cancer in several samples simultaneously A team from Washington State University (WSU) has developed an inexpensive spectrometer that connects to a smartphone and can spot cancer biomarkers in several samples simultaneously, thereby taking lab-like accuracy out into the field.   Read more VR OmniWear Arc brings haptic feedback to gamer's necks Worn around the neck, different parts of the OmniWear Arc will vibrate at different intensities to give a 360-degree indication of enemy and teammate positions beyond a player's field of view, and it may even find applications outside of the gaming world.  Read more HOME ENTERTAINMENT First Hollywood feature shot in high frame rate receives mixed reviews A new film shot and exhibited in a state-of-the-art 3D, 4K, 120 frames-per-second format recently premiered and audiences were left unsure of whether this new cinematic technology helped or hindered the film.   Read more MOTORCYCLES Electric MX takes on the gas in national Red Bull event ​Fans at the RedBull Straight Rhythm race next Sunday will see the Alta Motors Redshift MX lightweight torque monster go head-to-head with 250 cc gas bikes in a supercross-like event, but without the turns.  Read more OUTDOORS Ozone pen zaps water potable wherever you wander The Roving Blue O-Pen supports world travellers and nomads by keeping drinking water clean and fresh. In contrast to more common purification means, like UV rays, this pen-sized purification device kills microorganisms with the stuff that blocks those UV rays in the atmosphere: ozone.  Read more CHILDREN Sound-sensing baby bed is set to rock your infant's world ​​While babies are great in most ways, they're not exactly conducive to getting a full night's sleep. Realizing this, pediatrician Dr. Harvey Karp joined forces with designer Yves Béhar and a team at MIT's Media Lab to create a solution. The automated Snoo baby bed is the result. ​   Read more SPACE An ultraviolet view of the Red Planet ​​NASA has released a number of global ultraviolet images of Mars, constructed from data harvested by the agency's MAVEN spacecraft.   Read more MUSIC Spotify vs. Amazon Music Unlimited How does the newly released music-streaming service Amazon Music Unlimited compare to industry leader Spotify? We put the services side by side to find out.   Read more GOOD THINKING New wheels take a backward approach to wheelchair use ​​​It was in 2010 that we first heard about a set of ergonomic wheelchair wheels that let users move their chairs forward by pulling back on the handrims. Six years later, the technology has moved from prototype to product, with the Rowheels REV-LX wheelset recently hitting the market.​  Read more MOTORCYCLES Kawasaki plots new heading for the Z streetfighter family It is not customary at international motorcycle shows for manufacturers to tease new models ahead of other upcoming events, yet Kawasaki did announced two new Z variants to be unveiled later at EICMA. Intermot also hosted the debut of the Ninja 650, as well as several other interesting updates.   Read more MOBILE TECHNOLOGY Amazon's beefed-up Kindle Paperwhite is built for Japanese cartoons To accommodate cartoon-lovers of Japan, Amazon has today released a 32 GB model of the Kindle Paperwhite, optimized to handle the image-intensive stories of the manga genre. ​   Read more MEDICAL Cancer cells caught playing tag with chemotherapy on "cellular CCTV" Using an advanced imaging technique, scientists have watched as treatment-resistant leukemia cells teased chemotherapy into a high-stakes game of tag, an observation that opens up new ways in which we may be able to stop the deadly disease in its tracks. ​​   Read more ARCHITECTURE Glowing façade lights up 2016 LEAF Awards The overall winner of this year's LEAF Awards has been announced as Ian Ritchie Architects for the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the UK's University College London. The building was awarded for its undulating, glowing and multifunctional glass façade.  Read more ELECTRONICS Naim introduces the Bentley of home music streaming Since 2008, British audio specialist Naim Audio has been working to fill the cabins of Bentley cars with finely tuned sound. Now it's working to bring that partnership into living rooms. The company's latest Wi-Fi multi-room all-in-ones take cues from its ultra-premium automotive speakers.   Read more COMPUTERS Nvidia's new cards lower the cost of entry for GTX 10 series ​Nvidia is rounding out its GTX 10 series GPUs with two new entry-level cards, the GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti. Joining the flagship GTX 1080, the VR sweet spot GTX 1070, and the VR-on-a-budget GTX 1060, the new cards are designed to improve the look and feel of everyday modern gaming.   Read more SPECIAL PROMOTION FOR NEW ATLAS READERS The iKlips Drive is the Easiest Way to Add 128 GB to Your iPhone or iPad Speedy and compact, the iKlips is the easiest data storage and transfer solution for iOS devices. This MFi-Certified flash drive will securely store your files and travels easily wherever you go, allowing you to access your music, photos, documents, and more at a moment's notice.   Read more