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Trends with Benefits: NASA wants you, VR climbing, and no Star Wars spoilers!

This episode is 100 percent Star Wars spoiler free! But that doesn’t mean we aren’t excited about it.

If you are in New York City, you can now get your hands on the miraculous HoloLens at Microsoft’s HoloLens Experience Showcase for Developers. Take it from our Editor in Chief, who’s already been lucky enough to try one: It’s worth waiting in line for.

Brad recently got a sneak peak at Crytek’s new VR blockbuster, The Climb, and even got to chat with Director of Production David Bowman. He shares some of his insights on VR from the interview, and what it’s like to virtually cling to a cliff face.

Having enough space to fully utilize VR is definitely going to be an issue. Not a lot of people have an entire room that they can dedicate to it. Andy Boxall recently tested out Nvidia’s Everest with an HTC Vive, which showcases a great example of how immersive VR can become with some room to move. A company called Virtuix is taking a different approach with its Omni VR Treadmill. It involves a trampoline-like setup that utilizes special shoes. It looks a little silly, but allows users to have complete movement in a virtual world.

NASA has had an exciting year, and just received a $1.3 billion increase for its 2016 budget! Is it just the thrilling new photos of planets, or is it also because of the push for the commercialization of space?

Your childhood dream just came true: NASA is opening up public applications to become an astronaut. But would you be willing to travel for years in space? Some of us would.

Today’s episode features Brad Bourque, Ryan Waniata, Rick Stella and Greg Nibler. Please subscribe,  share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We also broadcast the show live on Wednesday next week due to Christmas, so keep an eye on the DT feed to tune in!

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