Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ gets lead actor

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One gets it lead star in Tye Sheridan. Sheridan has been a bit low-key in terms of roles but we’re sure you’ll get to see more of him soon as he’s set to play the young Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse. For this adaptation he’ll be playing Wade a.k.a. Parzival. He joins Olivia Cooke as Art3mis and Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento.

Ready Player One is set in the near future where everyone is connected to a virtual reality called the OASIS. When its creator dies, there comes up a Willy Wonka-esque quest for control of the company. Parzival and Art3mis are among a number of people who dedicate their lives to trying to become the owners of OASIS. The movie is scheduled to be released on March 30, 2018.

Source: io9

Netflix update brings 3D Touch and iPad Pro optimization for iOS

Finally, Netflix has updated its app on iOS to bring some requested features, including iPad Pro optimization and a new layout for iPad Pro users. Aside from that, iPhone users now get auto-play and recommendations. There’s also now 3D Touch support and Arabic has been added to languages that the platform supports. The “Kids” experience also gets an improved layout. And there’s also the usual performance improvements. Unfortunately, picture-in-picture still isn’t available and we hope Netflix listens and finally brings support for that.

Source: SlashGear

Father.io lets you play laser tag anywhere you like with your smartphone

Laser tag’s a lot of fun. But what if we tell you that you can play it anywhere thanks to this new Indiegogo project? Father.io is an augmented reality smartphone game that turns the world into your game board. It makes use of your camera to show you the world overlaid with a floating arm and a gun as well as your health, ammo, and the players around you. It also makes use of GPS to locate your position. For the laser tag aspect, you attach a widget called an Inceptor, an infrared blaster, to your phone. This will help you shoot at other players. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and fires up to about 50 feet.

Aside from playing the traditional laser tag game, you can also try story mode. With story mode, you’ll be interacting with 12 million points of interest around the world. In this mode, you’ll be in a dystopia where an A.I. gets a virus that turns cybernetic humanoid machines into human killing machines. You can visit real-life places like banks and hospitals to gain points and influence. But there won’t be much use for the Inceptor in story mode; it’ll mostly make use of your GPS. The Early Bird Inceptor pack will cost you around US$20 + shipping and that includes one Inceptor and the free Father.IO app on Google Play or iOS.

Source: Indiegogo | Via: Popular Science

Coca-Cola takes a stab at making a VR headset

The focus these days seems to be on virtual reality. Coca-Cola is cashing in on the trend with their take of it. As seen in the video above, they’re toying around with the idea of turning the 12-pack box the soda bottles come in to become your personal VR headset. If you’re up for it, you can even try building it on your own using that video or even Google’s own instructions.

Source: The Next Web