Six Flags has announced a partnership with Samsung that will result in virtual reality headsets being used on nine of the amusement park’s roller coasters across the country next summer, according to Theme Park Insider.

Some of the setups will actually have interactive game play available while riding the coasters, such as piloting an aircraft while doing battle with alien invaders, or riding along Superman as he flies about the city of Metropolis.

The article says six of the coasters will have the alien experience; The New Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Shock Wave at Six Flags over Texas in Arlington, Dare Devil Dive at Six Flags Over Georgia, Ninja in St. Louis, Steamin’ Demon at The Great Escape, and Goliath at La Ronde.  The Superman theme will available on three other coasters, Superman Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Superman The Ride at Six Flags New England and Superman Ride of Steel at Six Flags America.

According to Six Flags, these will be the first virtual reality coasters in North America, and riders will wear Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus headsets.  The headsets work with Samsung’s Galaxy 7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note5.

Marc Mathieu, chief marketing officer at Samsung Electronics America, said in a press release on businesswire.com, “What makes this partnership so compelling for consumers and the broader tech industry alike is that both companies are committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible – and bringing a VR coaster to life is certainly a new and thrilling proposition.  Now, people can be immersed into a totally new universe while riding a roller coaster, powered by Samsung Gear VR virtual reality devices. This transforms the modern roller coaster into a totally new, one of a kind sensorial experience – powered by technology. We are excited to work with the premiere brand in theme parks to bring Samsung’s VR technology to nine Six Flags locations across the U.S.”

Six Flags is one of the world’s largest theme park companies, with 18 parks across the US, Mexico and Canada, and Samsung is a recognized leader in innovation in consumer electronics design and technology, headquartered in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

Facebook officially announced the planned opening of a second European data center, this one located in Clonee, Ireland, according to an article on techcrunch.com.  The company’s other data center on the continent is located in Luela, Sweedn, and opened in 2013.

The new facility, located right outside of Dublin, will be the sixth data center overall, with construction planned to begin soon, and a goal of going live in late 2017 or early 2018.  Facebook plans to use only 100-percent renewable energy to power the plant, as it does at the Sweden facility.  The company has a goal to convert to powering 50 percent of its infrastructure with renewable energy by the end of 2018.

In  both operations, the data center is cooled by the outside air, but since the Ireland location’s air contains a good deal more salt, the incoming air will have to be more intensely filtered for use.

The new data center will be completely powered by hardware and software from Facebook’s own Open Compute Project, according to the article.

In making the announcement, Tom Furlong, Facebook’s VP for site operations, said in a statement, “Clonee will be packed full of cutting-edge technology, making it one of the most advanced, efficient, and sustainable data centers in the world.  All the racks, servers, and other components have been designed and built from scratch as part of the Open Compute Project, an industry-wide coalition of companies dedicated to creating energy- and cost-efficient infrastructure solutions and sharing them as open source.”

The company said it was looking to locate a data center in Ireland last June, but the new announcement made it official.

Facebook is not the only company locating in Ireland, as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have a presence there also, and Apple plans to open a data center in the country by 2017.  Facebook has had its international headquarters in Ireland since 2009.

Facebook has announced a new feature, called Facebook Sports Stadium, that will allow users congregate all the trash talk and statistics about the game they are following in one place, similar to Twitter and ESPN, according to wired.com.

The new feature will let fans see what their friends are commenting about the game, as well as what the experts are saying about the contest.  Additionally, live stats will be posted along with the comments from the leagues and the teams, and likely ads targeted to the sports fans using the hub.

Facebook hopes to gain an advantage over Twitter and other rivals by offering the immediacy of live events, while making the best of the user friendly format of Facebook’s pages, and the overcoming the burden of Twitter’s character limit.

Facebook product manager, Steve Kafka said in a blog post which announced the new hub, “Sports is a global interest that connects people around the world.  This product makes connecting over sports more fun and engaging, and we will continue listening to feedback to make it even better.”

The company hopes those who are unable to watch a game can follow along in real time with the new hub, and expects those watching at home to participate as well in the discussions.  By grouping the content together, it won’t flood the pages of non-fans, as some game apps were doing in the past, alienating those users who choose not to participate.

According to Facebook, they have some 650 million sports fans using their platform, so if it has a successful launch, it could make things difficult for some of the other sports related sites.  The company reportedly had about 65 million posts for last year’s Super Bowl, but they were for the most part spread across the main pages and the non-chronological format made it difficult for sports enthusiasts to keep up.

Facebook says it has plans to expand into basketball, soccer and other sports in the near future.

Pretty much everybody considers an update on their iPhone as an inconvenience.  I mean, who wants to start the update and wait for what seems like hours before the installation is finished.  How many tweets and posts are you missing during that down time?

But there are some pretty necessary items in the latest update that could be very important to the users, according to cnet.com.  The update that Apple released yesterday includes a patch for a bug that could potentially allow hackers to take over your phone without you even knowing it.

The article continues that you would have to connect to a fake Wi-Fi network for that to happen, but after that, almost all the information in your phone can be accessed.  At this point, there is no indication that has been done to anyone, but it sort of points out how dependent we have become on the device in your pocket or purse.

Phones have made the transition from, well, phones, to digital libraries, containing driver’s licenses, credit information, personal banking information, and online ordering data for purchases from a number of websites and online stores.  For some, they are almost their complete life’s history, compressed into a digital device.  That makes the protection of that information essential to protecting your identity.

In announcing the release, Apple did not comment on the vulnerability, but researchers at Skycure, a cyber-security firm say they reported the flaw to Apple back in June of last year.  Researcher Adi Sharabani, of Skycure, said hackers could do all kinds of damage once they have grabbed your info from the fake network.  From stealing cookies, to installing malicious software to record your keystrokes, they could potentially steal your passwords and other login info.  After that happens, they have as much access to your accounts as you do.

The time it took to complete the fix for the problem may be an indication of just how complex the situation was.

So while it may be aggravating  to slow down your social media presence for a little while, in the long run, you may be saving yourself from a great deal of aggravation trying to get your stolen identity back.

A recent story on Fox News of a widow in Canada having difficulty obtaining the password of her deceased husband so she could access his iPad is re-starting conversations about the rights to digital property after the loss of a loved one or family member.

The article highlights the struggles of 72-year-old Peggy Bush, who lost her husband to lung cancer this past August, as she wanted to retrieve her husband’s password from Apple to play games on his iPad.

Mrs. Bush’s daughter made contact with Apple and asked them to retrieve the password, or re-set the account, and provided the company with the serial numbers from the devices and a copy of her father’s will that left everything to Peggy, and also a notarized death certificate.

She says she was told by Apple she needed to get a court order to obtain the information, but after explaining her plight to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s program, Go Public, Apple reached out to the Bush’s and apologized for the “misunderstanding” and is working with the family for a solution.

How to deal with a person’s digital assets is becoming sort of a problem, according to Gerry Beyer, the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professor of Law at Texas Tech University’s School of Law.  Beyer told Fox News, “It’s huge, this is one of the hottest issues in estate planning and administration today.  I have dozens of anecdotal stories of similar problems in the U.S. – this is a type of property that, 20 years ago, wasn’t an issue.”

Beyer went on to explain there were dozens of states with pending legislation trying to assist with this problem and adds things are getting better, but slowly.  Professor Beyer advocates the practice of backing up important digital assets to a form of “tangible media” that could be passed along to someone.  He also recommends keeping a list of accounts and passwords for just such an eventuality.

Beyer says such a tactic could be scary, but it has to be done, and continues you have to be very careful what you do with it.

A few preparatory steps taken now to hand down your digital content to family members can save a good deal of heartache for loved ones left behind after you are gone.

Many owners of the newest line of iPhones are starting to report problems with the battery usage indicators, and it appears to be a due to a bug in the latest operating system, according to an article on fortune.com.

Apple’s support forums began to log complaints as far back as September, just after the new phones were introduced and the issue seems to bug both the 6S and the 6S Plus models.  Apple has admitted there is a flaw in the software for iOS 9 that causes the phone to report incorrect battery levels.

It appears the issue is happening most often after the phone’s users choose to set the time manually or change the local time zone.

Apple has recommended two temporary fixes for the bug.  First, they recommend restarting the phone by holding the power and the home button simultaneously until you see the Apple logo on your screen, then release both buttons.  This is effectively re-booting the phone.

Should that not fix the problem, Apple suggests going to your Settings, followed by General, and then Date & Time.  Once there, make sure the “Set Automatically” option is enabled.

If either of these options fail to correct the issue, Apple suggests you contact their Support for troubleshooting further.  Apple’s support says the company is aware of the issue and is working on a fix, but does not say when the fix will be provided.

Apple is about to launch iOS 9.3, with support for students sharing the dame device with individual accounts, a Night Shift mode that changes screen colors for eye-friendly viewing at night, and adds the ability to use a password in the Notes app for individual protection.

The company has not announced a date for the new system update, but it has been released to developers and public testers.  Apple has not said whether the update will include a fix for the battery issue.