From the incredible future of robotic prosthetics to the critical importance of a good towel, Agent Hall's Week in Geek round-up brings you all the essential stories from the world of science, technology and geeky entertainment!
Monday 23rd May
An incredible robotic arm – and the return of the alien menace
On Monday, we heard about the story of James Young: a gamer who lost an arm in 2012 after being pulled under a train in London. Four years later, he now has a bespoke robotic arm – based on the one used by Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games!
The arm was actually developed by the Alternative Limb Project– but this was done in partnership with Konami to make sure it was fit for a true Metal Gear fan. As well as giving James back the use of his arm, the prosthetic also has a whole bunch of built-in gadgets!
First of all, it has a smartwatch that links to his phone, which can be charged using the arm's build-in USB port. Customisable RGB lighting allows him to set it to any colour he likes, making it look even more futuristic. Best of all, the arm even features a built-in drone, which is housed under a removable panel and can fly around, following James about!
At the moment, the arm is attached to his body using a bulky system of straps – but his ultimate aim is to have the arm connected directly to his bones using titanium bolts. If you want to help him out, you can donate to his GoFundMe page here.
You can see James testing out the device in the video above – and to see more of the arm in action, take a look at this BBC Three documentary about the 'Metal Gear Man'.
Also on Monday, we saw a fantastic new trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence– and it is an absolute monster!
At almost five minutes long, the new trailer gives us a great rundown of the film's plot. You can see it for yourself above – but the story is that the defeated alien invaders sent a distress call 20 years ago, and have now come back to Earth for revenge!
A lot of actors have returned to reprise their roles from the original film, including Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Vivica A. Fox and Brent Spiner. Will Smith’s character has unfortunately died in a training accident between the two films – but Jessie Usher appears as his son.
Independence Day: Resurgence is due for release in the UK on June 24th.
Tuesday 24th May
A massive release for Blizzard – and some good news for Tweeters
On Tuesday, the highly anticipated first-person shooter Overwatch was released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Overwatch has been developed by Blizzard, the company behind the hugely popular World of Warcraft MMO, and it is a big step into the unknown for the company. It is the first new franchise to be launched by the company in two decades – and the first time they've attempted an FPS.
One thing that sets Overwatch apart from other FPS games is the wide range of different characters to play as, split across four different roles: offense, defence, tank and support. Within each class, each character has their own unique abilities – meaning there should be a character and class to suit everyone’s play style. The game is played online in teams of six players, and a successful team will have to combine players from each of the four classes.
Blizzard is hoping Overwatch will become a hit with e-sports players – an increasingly popular area of gaming. We’ll have to wait and see whether the e-sports community takes to Overwatch or not – but with almost 10 million people already playing the pre-release beta version, it looks like Blizzard may have another huge hit on their hands.
Also on Tuesday, Twitter announced new rules for how they calculate a tweet's character limit – which should make the micro-blogging site much easier and less confusing to use.
While they are sticking with the established 140 character limit, Twitter is going to change the rules about what exactly counts towards this limit. As part of these new rules, '@names' and media attachments will no longer be included in your tally.
For example, if you currently reply to a tweet from someone else, their username is included in your tweet's character limit. When the new rules come in, you'll have access to all 140 characters on top of the name, making it easier to have conversations with people.
Also, photos and video embedded in tweets will not count towards your character limit – but, despite recent rumours, regular links will still be included.
These new rules will come into effect over the next few months – but there's no specific date as of yet. If you want to know more about the new rules, take a look at Twitter’s announcement here.
Wednesday 25th May
The importance of a good towel – and the bendiest smartphone ever
Wednesday, of course, was the 25th of May, known to fans of Douglas Adams’ classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Towel Day!
On Towel Day, fans of Adams can be seen carrying a towel with them wherever they go. It all stems from a passage in The Hitchhiker’s Guide that describes a towel as “the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”.
The 25th May has also taken on another meaning in the last ten years: it's now recognised as international Geek Pride Day. This originated in Spain in 2006 – but is now celebrated by geeks across the globe.
So happy Geek Pride and a merry Towel Day everybody! You can listen to Douglas Adams himself extolling the virtues of the humble towel in the video above.
Also on Wednesday, news began to spread about a new flexible smartphone that could be wrapping its way around your wrist by the end of the year!
Developed by a new Chinese startup called Moxi Group, the phone is designed to roll up into a bracelet shape to be worn around your wrist. If you need access to the full screen, you can unroll it into a standard flat rectangular shape. The touchscreen works in both forms – so you don’t even need to take it off your wrist to use most of the functions.
We’ve seen flexible smartphones before in the shape of the LG Flex – but the flexibility was extremely limited to say the least, and the Moxi phone is in a whole different league. It achieves its super flexibility using a new type of graphene-based screen, and all of its electronics are crammed into the end of the phone, allowing the screen section to bend freely.
There is a downside to this tech, though. At the moment, the screen is only black and white – and, as it uses e-ink tech, it's unable to play videos or games. However, Moxi say they are working on a colour version, which may be available next year.
Obviously, as with any startup that claims to have a revolutionary new product, you have to take Moxi’s claims with a whole bucket full of salt. However, if they manage to bring the product to market before the likes of Samsung, they could be on to a winner.
We’ll bring you more updates as they become available – and right now, you can find out more in the CCTV news report above.
Thursday 26th May
Rumours of a souped-up Xbox One are doing the rounds
On Thursday, rumours began to circulate that Microsoft are on the verge of announcing two new Xbox One consoles at the upcoming E3 conference in June.
According to Kotaku, the two new models are going to be very different devices. One is intended to be a cheaper, slimmer version of the current Xbox One, with an upgraded 2TB hard drive. This is the kind of thing we've seen in the past, with slim versions of existing consoles being released every few years or so.
But the second new device sounds much more interesting. Due to be released in 2017, this is codenamed 'Scorpio' – and is rumoured to feature a more powerful graphics chip. This is similar to what we’ve heard about the rumoured 'PlayStation Neo' upgrade to the existing PlayStation 4, which may also see its debut at E3.
It’s been suggested that the GPU upgrade in Scorpio may make it compatible with the Oculus Rift VR headset, which would allow Microsoft to compete when the PlayStation VR is released later this year. Some rumours are even suggesting that the upgrade could make the Scorpio up to four times as powerful as the current Xbox One! This would be fantastic – but seems a bit far-fetched to me.
With the news, also announced on Thursday, that the PlayStation 4 has now sold over 40 million consoles, Microsoft really need to do something to catch up to Sony’s lead. Microsoft don’t announce their sales figures any more – but estimates are that they have sold only 21 million consoles, so they have a huge mountain to climb.
We’ll have to wait until E3 to see what both companies have to offer – so remember to keep checking the Week in Geek for all the latest news!
Friday 27th May
To boldly go... to Blackpool
If you're a Star Trek fan and you’re stuck for something to do over the summer, then get ready to set your faces to stunned! On Friday, it was announced that a new million-pound Star Trek exhibition will be beaming down to Blackpool at the end of June.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary TV series, the new exhibition will feature props, sets and costumes from the six different TV series and 13 movies. This will even include a full-size replica of the original bridge, allowing you to sit in Captain Kirk’s chair!
The organisers of the exhibition have worked closely with US TV network CBS in order to get hold of many items from private collections that have never been seen before in Europe. There's also set to be a brand-new display at this year's Blackpool Illuminations, which they say will be visible from space!
If you fancy exploring strange new worlds and new civilisations then set a course for Blackpool, where you can visit the new exhibition from the 30th June. Tickets are on sale here– and in the meantime, get yourself in the mood by checking out the original series' iconic introduction above!
That's it for another edition of the Week in Geek – but more more great articles from our Agents straight to your inbox each month, get your name down below for the Geek Squad newsletter!