[From The New York Daily News, where the story includes a 1:26 minute video] [Image: Susan Watts/New York Daily News] Bloomingdale’s virtual reality windows let shoppers try on shades without wearing them System gives a screen test on how you’ll look with the latest designer eyewear By Gina Salamone / New York Daily News Thursday, April 19, 2012 Window shopping is taking on a new meaning at Bloomingdale’s. As they get ready for summer, busy New Yorkers now can try on sunglasses without stepping inside the store. Virtual-reality technology projects designer shades onto shoppers who simply stand in front of the…

[From VentureBeat] TourWrist’s 360-degree panoramas add another dimension April 18, 2012 Heather Kelly Remember virtual reality tours, those 360-degree panoramic photos you could navigate with your mouse? They were hot for a while, popping up on every real estate agent and hotel site, but the low quality and jerky navigation made them feel antiquated and oh-so Web 1.0. TourWrist began reviving the art form last year by taking it mobile and adding a slick user interface. Now the company is taking the images further with an update to its iPhone and iPad app, new APIs and SDKs, and neat interactivity features,…

[From The Guardian’s GrrlScientist blog; watch the 8:32 minute video in HD on YouTube] Riding the Booster Riding a solid rocket booster up and then down again during a launch of the space shuttle Tuesday 10 April 2012 Here’s a fun little video from NASA: an HD video that shows a stunning view from a solid rocket booster attached to the space shuttle, pushing it up into orbit, and then not attached to the space shuttle, whilst the booster is plunging back to Earth.…

[From The Wall Street Journal, where the story includes more images and multiple videos] Rapper’s De-Light: Tupac ‘Hologram’ May Go on Tour By Ethan Smith April 16, 2012 The biggest buzz at Sunday’s Coachella music festival in California wasn’t for a hot new DJ or indie-rock band. It was for Tupac Shakur, the rapper who died more than 15 years ago and “performed” Sunday night alongside Snoop Dogg and producer Dr. Dre. Internet video of the Sunday evening show became an instant sensation on Monday morning. That response is helping push the possibility of a virtual Tupac tour in coming…

[From io9] Ray Bradbury on how Disneyland humanized robots By Lauren Davis Apr 15, 2012 Ray Bradbury is a self-professed “Disney nut” and, in 1965, found himself dismayed by an article in the Nation decrying Disneyland as vulgar entertainment. In response, he penned a love letter to Disneyland, defending Walt Disney as a man on the cutting edge of making robots seem human. Bradbury wrote this piece, “The Machine-Tooled Happyland,” for the October 1965 issue of Holiday magazine. It’s a defense of Disneyland, which Bradbury admits he hesitated to visit because it struck him as anti-intellectual. He recalls a fond…

[From The Hollywood Reporter; the original story about the reasons for the censorship appeared in Offbeat China; in a related story in The Telegraph, Twitter users ‘thought Titanic disaster was just a film plot’] Chinese ‘Titanic’ Fans Balk at Cuts to Rerelease UPDATED: Government regulators edit out nude scenes, but the film is expected to surpass the 2D version’s box-office performance. 4/12/2012 by Patrick Brzeski Chinese moviegoers turned up en masse for the debut of Titanic 3D on Tuesday, netting 20th Century Fox International $11.6 million, the second-highest opening-day take ever in the country. The original Titanic earned $44 million…