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NR50: Next Reality's 50 People to Watch: Aileen McGraw

Microsoft has always been pretty good with customer service, especially from the developer's end point. In recent years, since Satya Nadella took over as acting CEO, the level of customer and developer care has become something much more. This software giant has gone out of their way to learn about what works and what doesn't and to adjust.

News: Boring (Yet Mesmerizing) VR Experiences Could Calm Anxiety & Reduce Pain

Opioids, or narcotic painkillers, serve as our primary method for alleviating physical distress. They also happen to be a leading cause of death due to their addictive nature. AppliedVR hopes to introduce a safer alternative: virtual reality gaming. They utilize the existing Samsung Gear VR for the hardware, but provides specialized software that offers up a distracting experience that fosters greater pain ignorance.

News: Check Out These Awesome Mixed-Reality Movies Made with the HoloLens

Mixed reality filmmaking isn't a new concept. Disney managed to make it work in 1988 with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but not without an enormous amount of work. We haven't seen many mixed reality films of that scope since, and perhaps that's because it's still hard to accomplish. Filmmakers don't look through a viewfinder or monitor and see the fully rendered result on screen—but that can change with mixed reality headsets like the HoloLens.

How To: 5 Soda Pranks You Must Try!

Video: . ?The following are 5 practical jokes you can set up on your friends and family, All these pranks involve sodas so make sure you have a few handy if you want to try out these pranks. Just a little warning, 4 out of the 5 pranks showcased in this intractable are pretty messy so prank at your own risk.

How To: Add Documents, Downloads, Pictures, & Other Folders to the Windows 10 Start Menu

The Start menu has definitely seen many changes over the years—from the traditional menu that was present from Windows XP to 7, to the Start screen in Windows 8, to the hybrid of the two in Windows 10. And while the return of the Start "menu" has received near-universal praise, there are still some aspects old Windows 7 users will miss. Namely, the User folder and content folders (like Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos).

How To: Why 'Whipping' Cooked Pasta in Sauce Creates a Perfect Dish

Most cooks know they should stir pasta a few times while it's cooking, for obvious reasons: as the noodles cook, they release a glue-like starch that makes them stick to one another. Stirring prevents them from clumping together in an unwieldy, inedible mass. Now Mark Bittman in The New York Times discusses a great technique from Italy that helps you produce a plate of tender, toothsome pasta evenly coated in rich sauce every time, but it involves stirring the pasta at the end of its cooking ...

How To: Add a Full "Reboot" Menu to Android 5.0 Lollipop

If you're someone who likes to customize their user experience, stock Android is a lot like a blank canvas. The firmware that comes preinstalled on Nexus devices is just Android—no manufacturer skins or carrier bloat involved. This simplicity opens up the door for many root mods and flashable ZIPs that can be installed in a custom recovery.

How To: Build the Ultimate DIY RoboCop Helmet with Cardboard

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!" That iconic quote from the 1987 movie RoboCop was repeated by kids like me for years. The 2014 reboot introduced the baddest robot-cop on the planet to new audiences worldwide. While it didn't live up to the amazingly high expectations set by its predecessors, RoboCop 2014 did show off some newly upgraded gear. The modern look is cool and all, but rolling to a party rocking the 1987 helmet with the retro visor cannot be beat. With Halloween coming up, i...

How To: Add Creepy Apparitions to Your Halloween Photos Using the Pepper's Ghost Illusion

Photographers have been using the Pepper's Ghost Illusion for over a century to play up the level of creepiness in their photos. Many of the pictures that claim to be real "sightings" use this technique to project a ghostly figure into the background of their images. Today, it's still used in theatre, "scary" rides at amusement parks, and haunted houses all over the world, which makes it a great photography trick for Halloween time. As shown in the tutorial below by Make's Jason Poel Smith, t...

How To: Design Your Own iPhone 5 Case for Less Than $5

So, you've got your new iPhone 5 from Apple, but wait—where do you get a case for it? Since its launch, Apple Stores across the country have been carrying absolutely zero iPhone 5 cases. In fact, the only thing they seem to be carrying right now as far as iPhone 5 accessories goes is the new Lightning cable. So, when will they be getting cases? Rumors state October sometime, but there's no telling if it's now or at the end of the month.

How To: Find Out What Personal Data Your Mobile Apps Are Leaking with Mobilescope

If you use apps on your smartphone, chances are you have no idea what those apps are doing with your information. Just this year, there have been several scandals involving apps transmitting user data, like Path uploading users' entire address books onto its servers, HTC's Security Flaw, and Brewster exposing users' personal information (even Ashton Kutcher's). A new service called Mobilescope wants to make sure you always know where—and to whom—your data is going. Lots of apps copy your cont...

News: This Levitating Light Bulb Defies Gravity (And Ditches Unsightly Power Cords)

Helping to prove that science is way awesome, an 18-year old electrical engineering student has successfully made a light bulb float. His name is Chris Rieger, and he's been working on his "LevLight" project for about six months now, with pretty amazing results. This feat of ingenuity was accomplished by using magnetic levitation, although that over-simplification masks how considerably difficult this undertaking was.

How To: Turn pennies into silver and gold coins with zinc

One of the most famous and repeated chemistry experiments involves money. Some would say this is more of a trick than an experiment, but you can be the judge of that. No one can just turn pennies into silver or gold coins, but someone with a few chemicals can. So, if you want to cooler cents in your pocket, try out this chemistry trick yourself. Nurd Rage (Dr. Lithium) shows you how to turn pennies into silver and gold coins using zinc.

How To: Erect a tipi for shelter

This video is a tutorial explaining how to erect a tipi shelter. You must make sure all poles are 11' by 10' to have the correct height tipi. The instructor then aligns three marks and ties a clove hitch around all three poles. The next step is to raise the pole by using the rope to keep the structure stable. The next step involves putting the covering onto the lead pole and the bring the covering around 360 to complete. The last step involves securing the covering with rope by tying a knot a...