Canadian team wins James Dyson Award

For the first time a Canadian team won the international James Dyson Award. Four engineering students from the University of Waterloo—Jesus Zozaya, Alroy Ameida, James Pickard, and Katarina Ilic—made the Voltera V-One, a laptop-sized printed circuit board (PCB) printer to help SMEs and startups bring new tech into the market without the unnecessary expense that comes with having to develop new electronics. The machine makes prototype PCBs using the principles that underpin 3D printing.

Describing the process, the Voltera V-One lays down conductive and insulating inks to create a functional, two-layer circuit board. The machine also has a solder paste dispenser to allow components to be added to the board and it’s then reflowed by a 550w heater. As winners of the James Dyson Award, the team takes home $54,000 to further develop the idea.

Review: Sennheiser RS 175 Wireless Headphones

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Like many city dwellers, apartment living has forced a lot of compromises when it comes to my setting up a workable home theater system. The limited amount of space and the nearness of neighbours necessitates creative solutions which wireless headphones can easily solve.

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Microsoft announces first 104 games to support Xbox One Backward Compatibility

As part of the New Xbox One Experience, Microsoft has announced that they’ll start rolling out the games that support Xbox One Backward Compatibility. There are currently 104 games that will support this. Some of the 104 games getting backward compatibility include Gears of War catalogue, Assassin’s Creed II, Fallout 3, Borderlands, and Castle Crashers. You can check out the full list here. Also, going forward Microsoft promises that all Xbox 360 games available through Games with Gold after Nov. 12 will be playable on the Xbox One. The company plans to announce more backward compatible games regularly starting December. The video above show the Xbox One Backward Compatibility in action.

Source: Xbox Wire

Toronto and 14 other cities get Google’s VR for students

Now more than ever we wish we were kids still studying in school. Google for Education is bringing its Expeditions Pioneer Program to 15 new cities, including Toronto (which is the first stop for the program in the country). The tech giant partnered with Subaru to bring the program to different schools in the regions they visit. What the schools get are what Google calls Expeditions kit, these include ASUS smartphones, a tablet for the teacher, router, and viewers that turn the phones into virtual reality headsets. The kits either include Mattel’s new View-Master virtual reality viewers or Google Cardboard. Teachers can choose to virtually show their students over 120 places around the world, including Antarctica, Borneo Rainforest, and the Acropolis, to name a few.

The other cities benefitting from the program include the US cities of Alexandria, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Washington DC. It will also be coming to Denmark and Singapore for the first time.

Source: Google for Education