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What will the Sky VR app bring to sports coverage?

Marty
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What will the Sky VR app bring to sports coverage?

In March, Sky announced their commitment to creating loads of virtual reality content through a dedicated Sky VR app. We take a look at what this means for sports fans.

Sky VR Studio

If you are going to take virtual reality content creation seriously, you’ll be needed a studio to back you up. The Sky VR Studio was a logical step toward becoming a leading. The studio is a fully dedicated in-house VR production unit, who have already dipped their toe into creating fantastic footage on-board with the Williams Martini Racing Team on Facebook.


Beyond Formula One, Sky have also been involved with the red carpet portion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere, the Tour de France and Anthony Joshua fights.

The Sky VR app

The compliment this new suite of content, Sky have also developed the Sky VR app. The app will be available on Android and iOS is one of the most exciting apps Sky will be adding to their collection yet. Whether or not the app will be free or not remains to be seen, but it’s almost certainly to be free for Sky subscribers (with hopes the Irish market won’t be forgotten). We are waiting patiently for the launch of the Sky VR app, which is due this month (August).

Devices compatible with Sky VR

Gear VR compatible with SKY vr appWe’ve trialled plenty of VR headsets, with the HTC Vive being a clear leader. With that said, the Vive will need loads of space, loads of computer power and loads of money run. What doesn’t take quite as much is the Samsung Gear VR: once your already have a compatible phone of course. Thankfully, the Sky VR app or at least the service will be compatible with the Gear VR and Oculus Rift

Sky have also celebrated 25 years in existence and interviewed David Beckham in 360 on Facebook to celebrate. We’re just hoping that they nail some sort of VR content around the Premier League.

Crowdfunded: Renegade is a green 3D pen

Jon
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Crowdfunded: Renegade is a green 3D pen

Technology is allowing people to create mad yolks in the home – just remember the FormBox that we’ve talked about before. Creating 3D models in the home would have been pie in the sky stuff not to long ago but now the Renegade 3D pen is making it easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than ever.

The Renegade, while sounding like a baddie from Die Hard bares only a resemblance to the movie series as it’s as resourceful as John McClane (we’re looking at you Die Hard 4.0, with your crashing police cars into helicopters). The Renegade specialises in one thing, but it’s remarkable. It’s a 3D pen that prints models, but instead of using expensive filaments, this 3D pen uses recycled plastic bottles, paper, bags and a whole load of other materials you’d find lying around your home.

How does the Renegade 3D pen work?

crowdfunded 3d penThe Renegade is a cross between a hot glue gun and a 3D printer. The device pulls your recycled material through a screw feed which heats the material to a point where you can manipulate it. The only real limit here is the users imagination and of course how ever many bottles of Coke you can get through.

Renegade uses 5 to 7 mm strips cut from PET plastic bottles, plastic bags, or plastic files with a thickness of 0.14 to 0.35mm. It can also use standard PLA, ABS, nylon, TPE, HIPS, wood and other types of filament with a diameter of 1,75 mm. Did we mention it also comes in black or white? Saving the environment, creating awesomeness and all in the colour of your choice.

You may be wondering how you turn the plastic bottles into the required strips: you use a ChupaCut of course. The ChupaCut is a bottle shredder that produces perfect plastic strips for use in Renegade. The ChupaCut is one of those strangely satisfying things to watch operate too.

The ChupaCut will slice spherically to allow it to skim 3mm, 6mm, 9mm or 12mm without ever having to change a thing and unlike previously patented competitors, ChupaCut has curved slots that significantly reduce friction force and provide a very efficient rotation of the bottle, keeping it at an acute angle with the blade as it’s being cut. This also keeps the blade sharp for longer, and results in an easier, faster, and more stable cutting process.

The Renegade community

Not the next instalment of Mad Max but instead a great example of the spirit within the “maker-movement” community. There is an online area where users can print out templates upon which they can use the 3D pen, ranging form simple creations to quite complex ones.

The bigger picture

Currently there is approximately a trillion bags and bottles used around the globe annually. It takes 1000 years for plastic to degrade. It’s nice to see a product that is functional, innovative and effective. Two 2 litre bottles is enough to replace 25 standard filaments saving roughly €20 quid a pop. That’s incentive enough to make this a nice starting point in 3D printing.

The Renegade is on Kickstarter now.

 

Crowdfunded: Irish Kickstarter fails

Marty
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Crowdfunded: Irish Kickstarter fails

You’ll regularly find us harping on about how amazing crowdfunding is and how many fantastic ideas are now realities thanks to this modern phenomenon. Well, believe it or not, we’ve never looked at the flip side of the coin – the Irish Kickstarter fails. It’s easy to enjoy the brilliant, but for one moment, let’s pause and appreciate the dreamers that just didn’t think their idea through.

Determining the worst Irish Kickstarter fails

Our methodology is simple. Kickstarter allows you to search campaigns by country, funding goal and actual funding achieved. We consider the fails to be sitting atop a list of campaigns with huge goals but very little interest. Using Kickstarter’s advanced search, we are able to find campaigns raising less than €1000 after targeting over €1 million: all from within Ireland of course. Without further ado we present to you the worst Irish Kickstarter fails.

Kickstart a Millionaire

kickstarter fails trying to get a blank chequeIf you’re going to kick off the list of Irish Kickstarter fails what better way to do it that a blatant attempt to get rich. Dublin’s Glenn O Carroll, who we can only imagine had just watched the Truman Show, had plans of the public simply giving him money. With this money, Glenn would strap up some GoPro cameras to himself and show the world what it’s like to be the “flavor of the month”.

Reading this got me a little excited as it’s genuinely a really interesting concept. Sure enough, Glenn was worried about “becoming a meme”, so much he declared this as one of the projects main risks. Alas, fears were put aside as he missed two key funding targets. First he fell short of €1 million and second he fell short of his honest prediction of even achieving €2. Glenn raised €1.

The Beloved

Since its inception Kickstarter has been involved in the creation of several movies with the likes of the Veronica Mars movie, receiving almost $6 million from just over 90,000 backers being a prime example of how to do it. The Beloved didn’t quite reach the same heights.

Set in an 1968 Welsh commune, The Beloved proved to be a steamy affair, aiming for £850,000 in crowdfunding, The Beloved achieved a grand total of £101 from two backers. This was all despite having £2.66 million already secured prior to the campaign starting.

Building Michael’s house from GTA 5

We don’t really know which of the two points we should start with on this one. We either start with how crazy it is, or the fact it’s crazy 10 people backed it, raising €33 of the overall €1.7 million funding target.

Irish Kickstarter fails gta house in louthWell we’ve pretty much covered how off the wall that second bit is just by mentioning it, so now onto the idea. Grand Theft Auto has seen many of us enjoy hours of waging horrendous violence on a virtual world. Many worry about that virtual world creeping into reality, but few would have predicted that emerge as a Kickstarter campaign. Well that’s just what happened as a man by the name of Paul Boyle thought it a good idea to get a rake of people together to fund the main character’s mafia gaff for a cool €1.7 million.

As we said, €33 was raised by 10 people but the proposed Carlingford site in Louth won’t be seeing the GTA mansion anytime soon.

Three Armed Decoy Tour

We could have featured them twice in this list of Irish Kickstarter Fails, but we won’t. First in March and again in May 2015, Three Armed Decoy attempted to raise €1.1 million to fund a world tour following years of support from dedicated fans in an effort to reach even more fans. Described as a “simple project” needing help from “normal people” the first campaign did achieve €30 from two backers. The follow up campaign didn’t raise anything.

We wouldn’t mind but we’ve heard worse.

FERDO.com – August 2015

Irish Kickstarter Fails - FERDOWe’re pretty sure this was a real campaign that didn’t lack some fairytale thinking. The campaign’s founder had the idea at the age of eight to design a site combining “social network, an on-line shop, an on-line arcade, an entertainment station and tones [sic] of applications”, summed up by the creator as holding the potential to “be one of the most beneficial and creative sites ever”. Backers were offered free access to downloads in the first year, but this was not to be a problem. With an initial target of €1.25 million, FERDO.com raised €1 from one backer – whom we imagine was the founder himself.

It was a lack of interest that scuppered FERDO.com despite the founder predicting the primary risks and challenges of the project to be the possibility “it will need to become popular before it becomes successful.” Unfortunately, owing to the fact FERDO.com  was practically Facebook, they missed their goal but did earn the title of “least successful Kickstarter campaign in Ireland”.

That’s the best of the best…or is it worst of the worst?

 

Is this a first look at the iPhone 7?

Marty
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Is this a first look at the iPhone 7?

One of our favourite ways to pass four minutes online is by watching Unbox Therapy’s Lewis as he presents the very latest in tech. This week, he’s only gone and gotten his hands on a mock-up of the latest iPhone 7 Pro.

Obviously, it’s a little early for this to be a confirmed iPhone 7. This phone has been mocked up by BESOUND and would appear to feature the vast majority of rumours that have been leaking out over the past few months. This leaked model would appear to be the iPhone Pro model with wireless charging connectors on the rear. Keep following us for the latest iPhone 7 rumours and leaks.

5 worst fantasy football players to destroy your team

Gary
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5 worst fantasy football players to destroy your team

Imagine with us for a moment. The site is live as you sit down to plot your route to Fantasy Football glory. You’ve done your research and already have some great advice on the 5 bargain fantasy football players to boost your team. But what about those potential landmines that could scupper your plans? We look at the players it’s best you avoid when picking your team of fifteen.

Worst fantasy football players – Goalkeeper

Joe Hart – Man City – £5.5 million

The thing to remember when you choose a GK. Either go with someone who is a good shot stopper, or someone who is behind an iron wall for the majority of the season. Unfortunately for Joe Hart, he’s in neither category. 15 clean sheets last year is flattering for the England. Buy his shampoo if you must, just don’t pick him in your fantasy football team.

Worst fantasy football players – Defender

Branislav Ivanovic – Chelsea – £6 million

In recent seasons, not picking Ivanovic in your team would have left you open to the kind of Friday night pub ridicule usually reserved for those who wear socks with sandals. Iva was a first choice for many, an integral part of José’s bus crew, even popping up with the odd goal and assist. But last season seen a huge drop in form for the Serbian international (along with the rest of his team mates) only scoring 111 points all season. By comparison, Patrick Van Aanholt scored 127 playing for Sunderland.

Worst fantasy football players – Midfielder

Alexis Sanchez – Arsenal – £11 million

You need to consider two things when deciding if Sanchez is worth picking this season.

  1. Will he be at Arsenal next season? Rumours have linked him with a move away, with PSG supposedly interested.
  2. After a long season last year and a full run out in Copa America, will he be able to re-create his first season form, when he scored 207 points, or will he suffer last season’s fatigue, scoring only 167?

Given that he’s already marked as doubtful on the FPL site, you’re best off to avoid him.

Worst fantasy football players – Strikers

Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Man United – £11.5 million

Ok, calm down. Let me explain. £11.5 million is a hefty chunk out of your budget for a player who is unproven in England. Granted, he has scored goals for PSG for fun, but that is in a league where they beat Troyes 9-0, and finished 31 points above 2nd place.  No, I’ve not lost my marbles (yet). Yes, I saw his debut “shinned” scissor kick goal the other day. It’s too big a price to pay for a “traffic cone” – avoid signing him and take Lukaku instead. You’ll be glad you did.

Harry Kane – Spurs – £11 million

The Hurri-Kane is suffering from a bit of crisis of confidence after Euro 2016. After England we’re dumped out of the Euro’s by football powerhouse, Iceland, Kane was one of the players who was at the forefront of the fallout. He looked a shadow of the player who hit 25 goals last season. Add that to the fact that he didn’t score his first league goal until late September last season, Kane should not be considered until Gameweek 5 at the earliest.

On the plus side though, he doesn’t take corners for Spurs…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kWOjYgUMO8

Join the Goos3D.ie Fantasy Football league.

Click here and use the league code 338572-103268

What’s on Netflix: Stranger Things

Dean
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What’s on Netflix: Stranger Things

Over the past week you are likely to have seen friends on social media raving on about this new Netflix series Stranger Things. In the name of research, we watched the whole thing so now Goos3D can bring you the low down and whether or not it’s worth the watch.

You get the feeling throughout the series that you’ve been thrown back into the eighties. There are no cheap scares in this series with the writers instead opting for great characters that develop throughout. You’ll root for some, while some you want to just smack in the face, but none of them want to make you want to turn it off.

What’s Stranger Things about?

stranger things on netflixBeing a fan of Stephen King myself, you can really feel that his writing may have inspired the creators in the making of this. You know that the unfolding events wouldn’t happen in real life – but you don’t care. Stranger Things isn’t supposed to depict a realistic serial killer or a mysterious “who dunnit” adventure leaving you disappointed at the end as it turned out to be ET: actually, you nearly expect ET to turn up. Stranger Things is supposed to be fun, giving you break from real world drama, present in most series these days. If a UFO lands, you don’t think, ‘that’s ridiculous’, you think, ‘uh oh, the gremlins have arrived. Shit’s going down.’ Like I said, we’re brought back to the old 80’s horror movie classics, but they execute it perfectly so that you don’t think it’s stupid and switch back to Fargo.

So without giving too much away, Stranger Things follows a town that has been shaken by the disappearance of a young boy named Will. Throughout the series we see strange science experiments, supernatural events, and meet a young girl who makes us ask ‘what the flip is going on’ at least once per episode.

We see the first ‘what the fudge’ moment before the 80’s style retro opening credits, taken straight from a page out of X-Files. Yep, the very start of the first episode and we love it. It’s the kind of scene that’s leave you a bit confused, but keeps you interested enough to keep watching, the way any good film or series should start – with a hook. The series will continue to leave you asking ‘how did that happen’ rather then ‘what happens next’. You demand answers, and Stranger Things delivers.

The characters

We meet our main characters, a couple of young lads that make you feel like your watching a remake of King’s IT. You can’t help but love one particular character, Dustin, because of his slightly over the top lisp. You’ll probably think will be annoying throughout the series but you really start to enjoy as you start to grow fonder of him and his friends. They decide to take the law into their own hands and try find Will.

watch stranger things on Netlfix
Along the way, they meet ‘Eleven’, played by Millie brown, who gives a masterclass performance of a traumatised girl who says very little in the series but still manages to peak our curiosity. Immediately after showing up out of no where, we know this girl has seen things by the look in her eyes. We know this girl has answers and we just want to shake her and ask ‘what is going on?’ But her past has left her scarred and she doesn’t understand how a normal girl her age should act, never mind how to interact with society. Even stranger, Eleven can do things. Things that normal people can’t do. We’re left wondering where is she from and why she is here?

And then we meet Will’s mother, played by Winona Ryder (remember her?) who is about to enter a psychological and supernatural roller coaster in order to find her son. She begins receiving phone calls and hearing Will’s voice, but the authorities think it must be in the distraught mothers head. Lights start flickering around the house. She tries to communicate with the lights to try and contact Will, or something that knows of Will’s whereabouts.

During the series, another girl, older, in her late teens is captured. A very vague picture of her captor is taken by Will’s older brother. With abnormally long arms and and legs (Slenderman-esque), we instantly know that the captor isn’t human but also not an animal. Could it be an alien? A demon of some sort? Or are we left disappointed to find out it’s just a guy dressed up in a disguise? As I said earlier, this isn’t that kind of series.

The verdict

All that on top of walls warping into strange monstrous shapes, portals leading to a strange unknown territory, strange science and a secret government plot – this series is definitely lives up to its name. If you’re planning a bank holiday hangover, stock up on goodies and have a good binge. Stranger Things is very different to any other series on Netflix at the moment. After my 8 hour binge, I was annoyed at myself for not savouring it a bit more and watching it over a couple of days. It’s a fun watch, immediately after I wanted to watch it again because I enjoyed the characters and story so much. Well worth the watch. And good news, it’s already gotten the go ahead for Season 2, so prepare yourself for the signs of Netflix addiction.

 

5 bargain fantasy football players to boost your team

Gary
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5 bargain fantasy football players to boost your team

Rejoice, football fans, for it is finally that time of year again! After the joys of Euro 2016, we are weeks away from the start of the new Premiership season. And that can only mean one thing – fantasy football is back!

Most of you know the format: spend €100 million on a squad of 15 players. Most people will go for the obvious choices – Sergio Agüero featuring in more teams than a set of pitch-side water-bottles. But what happens when you’ve players to pick but no spends left? Every year, fantasy football leagues up and down the countries are won by those who do a little bit of digging and uncover some hidden gems.

Bargain fantasy football players – Goalkeeper

Heurelo Gomes – Watford – £5 million

At first glance, most people would overlook Gomes down to his craziness: only 3% of players are picking him. Delve a litter deeper into his fantasy football statistics and you’ll see a decent bargain emerge. Scoring 157 points last year, maintaining 11 clean sheets and making 123 saves, Watford’s stopper towers over the much lauded David De Gea. De Gea earned 142 points and made 83 saves last season. As bargain fantasy football players go, Gomes is likely as good as they come and a half million cheaper than the United number one – plus he’s a bit of craic to watch.

Bargain fantasy football players – Defender

Patrick Van Aanholt – Sunderland – £5 million

Patrick Van Aanholt features as one of Goos3D's bargain fantasy football playersDespite Sunderland just about escaping relegation last year, former Chelsea benchwarmer Van Aanholt was one of their standout performers, especially in the second half of the season. A return of 6 goals and 4 assists did much to contribute to his final score of 127 points. A great positive for a defender is also his low risk nature, having only picked up 2 yellow cards all season. Van Aanholt’s run of form is on par with Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin, highest scoring fantasy football defender last year – but costing £1.5 million more. Van Aanholt is a very attractive offering for a defender spot indeed.

Bargain fantasy football players – Midfielders

George Boyd – Burnley – £5.5 million

For a bargain midfield option who could fit into any fantasy football team, look no further than Burnley’s George Boyd. Boyd played a critical role in getting Burnley back into the Premiership for this season, and has previous Premiership experience with the Clarets – he was named Burnley’s player of the year in 2014/15, and scored 110 points. That’s just 21 points shy of Kevin De Bruyne last year, who costs nearly double the price at £10.5 million. Boyd can also do this:

N’Golo Kanté – Chelsea – £5 million

Kanté with premier league trophy set to be fantasy football bargainDespite what Gary Lineker might say on Twitter, Kanté moving from Leicester to Chelsea represents another step in the players’ meteoric evolution (2 years ago, he was playing for Caen in France. We’d never heard of them either). £5 million is a snip for a player who is likely to be Antonio Conte’s midfield general at Chelsea, especially with Matic looking likely to move away. Kanté logged 108 points for his fantasy football managers last year at Leicester, but expect a higher return from him this year.

Bargain fantasy football players – Striker

Shane Long – Southampton – £6.5 million

With Southampton in a state of transition thanks to Koeman’s move to Everton and a number of other clubs interested in signing him, Long is good value at £6.5 million. His stats aren’t bad either. Long scored 10 goals and 109 points last year, even though he spent most of the season as backup. But with Pelle likely on the move to China, Long looks set to get more playing time this year, which means more terrified defences and an even higher points return.

Join the Goos3D.ie Fantasy Football league.

Click here and use the league code 338572-103268

Crowdfunded: The Bagel measuring tape

Marty
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Crowdfunded: The Bagel measuring tape

The most exciting creations to appear on Kickstarter and Indiegogo are often the simple things you find around the house – re-imagined. No different is the Bagel measuring tape.

What is the Bagel?

The Bagel is a digital measuring tape which allows you to measure a wide variety of shapes and sizes. It also provides analysis of the measurements it calculated. It’s currently on Kickstarter seeking $30,000 in funding. The good news is they are just under one million dollars in funding.

How does it work?

The Bagel has three measuring modes. String mode, wheel mode and remote mode. Using patented technology it converts your action into measurements to an on-board screen and smartphone powered application.

Bagel String Mode

the bagel string modeBagel String Mode allows you to measure in straight lines, similar to a traditional measuring tape, but with the added benefit of being able to wrap around objects too. The greatest tragedy to befall the Bagel is that it won’t make the cool sound when it goes flying back… you know what we’re on about.

Bagel Wheel Mode

Bagel Wheel Mode allows you to run the device along lengths to measure. What you’re measuring can be any shape, making this incredibly useful. The main benefit of wheel mode is the ability to measure with one hand in awkward situations.

Bagel Remote Mode

Remote Mode is the big winner. If you’re looking at measuring a room or something and simply couldn’t be arsed walking all the way to the other side – because you live in a mansion – Remote Mode uses a beam to measure distance to an object.

The really smart bit…

Once you’ve finished taking your measurements, you will see the all important numbers on the built in LED display. The Bagel goes even further and logs everything into the companion app on your phone via Bluetooth. You can even add voice descriptions as you save the measurements, making the whole deal of measuring very easy indeed.

Everything else we have in life is becoming smart, so it’s probably time we replace a century old piece of technology. The reaction on Kickstarter would surely suggest this is the case. The CAO recently announced there was a surge in applications for college courses relating to construction so it’s likely builders and engineers of the future will have very different tools. The only thing we have a problem with is how enjoyable it was to let traditional measuring tapes retract. Ah well.

 

Pokémon NO: Sick of Pokémon GO?

Marty
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0
Pokémon NO: Sick of Pokémon GO?

We make no secret of the fact we are Pokémon trainers here at Goos3D, but it’s not for everyone. Respecting that everyone is entitled to their own opinions there is a way for you to hide Pokémon from your online life at least.

Pokémon NO Chrome extension

pokemon noIf you are a Google Chrome user and a Pokémon GO disliker, then this is a no brainer. Pokémon NO is a simple Chrome extension that seeks out any mention of Pokémon as your web pages load, eradicating it before you even see it. This includes social media too, ensuring that your opinions of those people in the office, that you were convinced were grown-ups, won’t change.

Unfortunately Pokémon NO won’t reduce the likelihood of these grown-ups bumping into you in the street, but at least you can give yourself some sort of break from the biggest tech phenomenon of 2016. Now, after that little bit of research, we’re off to uninstall that extension.

Evolve your Eevee in Pokémon GO

Jon
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Evolve your Eevee in Pokémon GO

As you may have noticed, the Goos3D team are pretty caught up in Pokémon GO right now. We are working on a comprehensive guide but have happened upon a nice little easter egg online that will be of interest to all you budding trainers out there.

Get info on Pokémon GO Lure Drops in Dublin

Niantic have not been afraid to include to cap tipping to earlier versions of the game and TV series. Eevee is one of the most unique Pokémon in the franchise as it has various possible evolution paths, with possible evolutions including Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon and Sylveon. One guy on Reddit has discovered how you can gain a little bit of control over the evolution of your Eevee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4tqvTDx2aQ

Does anyone remember the Eevee brothers? Rainer, Pyro and Sparky? Well each of these trainers has their own evolution of Eevee aligned to their character: Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon. Essentially the hack is this, nickname our Eevee with the correlating name of the evolution you are looking for and restart the game (granted the server may not like this) Boom. If you name your Eevee Sparky, you’ll get you a Jolteon, Rainer will get you a Vaporeon, and Pyro will get you a Flareon.

We haven’t come across our own Eevee yet, but there are widespread reports that this works. Did it work for you? Let us know on Facebook where you can also find out about our Pokémon GO lure drop in Dublin City Centre.

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