This is the first VR headset you should buy

Samsung sent us a final, retail unit to try out. The hardware feels surprisingly light in your hand, but it avoids the cheap, creaking feeling of most plastic hardware that weighs this little. Remember, this is something that's going to be strapped to your face for long periods of time, so every bit of weight added is a big deal.
The retail Gear VR is lighter than the Innovator Edition, 318 grams compared to 379 grams, and you can feel the difference. The padding around the eyes is likewise adjusted to be much more comfortable, and your glasses now fit in the headset without being crushed against your face. The downside to the new design is that light gets in a bit around the edges, but it's easy to ignore once a game or experience begins.

Sony Officially Bringing PlayStation 2 Games to PlayStation 4 Through Emulation

Sony’s pretty solidly winning the current console generation, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a few tricks up their sleeves—including the return of the highest-selling video game console of all time, the PlayStation 2.
After speculation surrounding some PS2 games included with the new Star Wars Battlefront, explained in this video:
It seems like the PS4 already has the capability to run emulated—not ported—games from one of the most impressive software libraries ever. The company confirmed as much to Wired, with a representative telling them via email, “We are working on utilizing PS2 emulation technology to bring PS2 games forward to the current generation. We have nothing further to comment at this point in time.”
That vague confirmation leaves some questions open, most importantly whether or not they’re going to enable playing PS2 discs directly on the newer console or if you’ll need to buy games again digitally or bundled on PS4 discs. Either way, this technology is obviously pretty far in development if Battlefront is already making use of the capability. What PS2 titles are you excited to revisit (possibly looking better than ever in a higher resolution) once this becomes a reality?

Apple's giant tablet that launches this week.

Critics love the iPad Pro as a tablet but are skeptical the device can actually replace their laptops anytime soon. But there was one aspect of the iPad Pro almost every critic agreed with: The $170 Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro is overpriced and underwhelming.
TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino praised the keyboard’s sealed design that prevents spills and splashing from affecting any circuitry, but he said “the feel of the keys are a bit musky for my tastes and isn’t nearly as good on the rapid fly as a MacBook keyboard.”

We just started building the largest and most powerful optical telescope ever

Construction began Wednesday, Nov. 11 on what could become the world's largest optical telescope. The 22-story Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), now being built in a desert atop a mountain in Chile, could peer deeper into the universe than anything humans have ever built and capture images 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers will use GMT to observe planets outside our solar system, watch the birth of new galaxies and stars, study black holes up close, and hopefully unravel some of the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, which together make up 95% of the universe. GMT is part of the Carnegie Institute of Science Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The area's thin, dry air makes it one of the most pristine star-gazing spots on Earth. The mirror of the telescope will span 85 feet across, but since it's physically impossible to build a mirror that large, engineers are making seven "smaller" mirror segments and arranging them in a circle. The finished product will look something like this: gmt mirror© Provided by Business Insider Inc gmt mirror GMTEach mirror segment spans 27 feet and weighs 17 tons — about the weight of three killer whales — according to the GMT Organization. The mirrors must be absolutely flawless, or the telescope will return fuzzy and distorted images. It takes a full year to cast and cool one of the segment, plus three more years of meticulous smoothing and polishing at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab in Arizona to get the finish just right:

Tiny Machine Paddles Water, Eats Pollution, Spits Out Electricity

Inside these tiny machines is a colony of hungry bacteria, yearning to eat. The row-bot, as this charming little device is named, paddles about on the surface of water, funneling waste and pollution into its bacteria-rich stomach and receiving electrical power in return. It’s a self-sufficient cleaner on a tiny scale, made to bob in the sea and eat tiny bites of waste until there’s nothing left.
Presented last month at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Hamburg, Germany, the paper “Row-bot: An Energetically Autonomous Artificial Water Boatman” by a team of academic researchers in Bristol, details the design and development of the tiny garbage-eating machines. The initial goal was to create a machine that could forage, like a wild animal, so it wasn’t dependent on humans to constantly recharge and reenergize itself. Inspired also by the water boatman insect, the robot they created is a tiny, hungry, buoyant surface skimmer.

Bluetooth will get much more powerful next year

The ever-growing number of connected gadgets on the market is putting a strain on our Bluetooth connections. To keep up with the increased burden, the Bluetooth standard is getting an upgrade, with longer range, faster speeds, and mesh networking all in the works for 2016. The incorporation of these new features is being overseen by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), an industry body that counts companies such as Apple, Intel, Microsoft, and Lenovo among its backers.
"There is significant demand from our members and the industry at large to enhance Bluetooth with the new capabilities we’re announcing today," said SIG chairman Toby Nixon in a press statement. "Current projections put the market potential for Internet of Things between $2 and $11.1 trillion by 2025. The technical updates planned for Bluetooth technology in 2016 will help make these expectations a reality and accelerate growth.”

Astronomers spot most distant object in solar system

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious dwarf planet that is three times farther away than Pluto and believed to be the most distant object in our solar system.
The discovery of the dwarf planet known as V774104 was announced Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society near the US capital and could indicate the presence of more rogue planets in our celestial neighborhood.
The dwarf planet currently sits 15.4 billion kilometers (9.6 billion miles) from the Sun.
It is believed to be between 310 and 620 miles across.
Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, announced the discovery and said its orbit remains unknown, for now.