In today’s Bulldog wrapup on technology news:

  • NBC to offer Olympic content in virtual reality
  • Netflix to boost original content from Asia
  • Startups look to redesign the breast pump
  • Google Calendar suffers an outage

The details:

  • Here come the virtual reality Olympics … for Samsung users

Athletes in Rio will compete to be the fastest sprinter and highest jumper at the Olympics this August. But there’s another test underway as well: How well can virtual reality capture sporting events?

NBC says it will provide 85 hours of virtual reality programming during the Rio Olympicsin August — though only to users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and the Samsung Gear VR headset. It’s the first time Olympics programming will be available in VR.

Virtual reality coverage of sports, essentially 360 video, has been growing since VR headsets such as the Samsung Gear and Oculus Rift became widely available earlier this year. Sports broadcasters are betting that virtual reality will be the next big game-changing way to watch sports. But right now, the audience is limited to those that have smartphones and VR headsets, which can be pricey.

Still, coverage is growing. In May, NBC broadcast the Kentucky Derby in 360 video. The NBA has broadcast some of its games in virtual reality, and Fox Sports broadcast VR streams from the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June.

Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, said Rio will be a showcase for the “cutting-edge” technology.

The Olympics video, which will be presented on delay during the games, will include opening and closing ceremonies, men’s basketball, gymnastics, and track-and-field events. Other virtualized sports will include beach volleyball, diving, boxing and fencing. NBC will also release VR highlight packages of those sports.

The VR video itself will be captured by Olympic Broadcasting Services, a unit of the International Olympic Committee that provides video feeds to international broadcasters. Viewers will need Samsung devices and the NBC Sports app. Samsung is the official smartphone sponsor of the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Compatible phones include the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 phones.

  • Netflix to boost original series, films in and from Asia

Netflix plans to expand its Asian offerings to subscribers around the world by tapping more creators in the region, including “Snowpiercer” director Bong Joon-ho, its chief said Thursday.

CEO Reed Hastings said the U.S. streaming service company is looking at many projects throughout Asia, including original series by Asian creators, following its investment in the South Korean filmmaker’s new movie “Okja.”

Hastings did not elaborate. He said more details will be announced later this year.

“Okja” is Netflix’s first investment in a Korean film project. The latest work by Bong currently being filmed at a remote village in eastern Korea is slated for launch next year on Netflix.

Bong is one of the best known South Korean directors. His works “Snowpiercer,” ”Mother” and “The Host” gave him critical acclaim and commercial success. Local media reported that Netflix invested $50 million, among the largest amounts in the South Korean movie industry.

Netflix’s growing focus on Asian content comes after its business in the region suffered some setbacks this year. In January, it launched its service in 130 more countries as part of its efforts to boost international subscribers to offset slowing growth in the U.S.

  • Startups look to redesign the breast pump

Ask many mothers and they’ll tell you, pumping sucks in more than one sense of the word.

“It feels like you are a cow. You are hooked up to a machine — it’s the opposite of breastfeeding,” says Nina Emlen, who works full-time in college admissions and pumps milk twice a day for her son, Asher.

Women praise the pumps for giving them the freedom to spend time away from their baby. This can mean working, working out or getting a pedicure. But the complaints are manifold: The machines use harsh plastic parts, they are noisy and cumbersome, and they require a lot of maintenance and cleaning, which challenge bleary-eyed new parents.

But a growing number of startups wants to make the breast pump more mother-friendly, using soft silicone parts or keeping their noise level down to make it easier for them to work and pump simultaneously.

It’s not an easy task. Because they are considered medical devices, breast pumps sold in the U.S. must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The Associated Press couldn’t even get one of the newest, not-yet-approved pumps to test out with nursing mothers in the newsroom due to the regulations.

And though they are now covered by most health insurance plans, any redesign has to factor in cost. There are also patents to contend with from competing companies. For the male-dominated tech industry that’s working on “disrupting” everything from meal delivery to taxicabs, the idea of reinventing the breast pump has simply not been on the horizon.

In fact, most of the startups working on new pumps and accessories are parents who grew frustrated with what’s on the market today. Many ideas came out of a breast pump “hackathon” held over a weekend in 2014 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There were engineers, computer programmers, clinicians and others interested in fixing this problem. In all, some 150 people attended. MIT provided sewing machines, laser cutters, a 3D printer and other tools. Medela, a leading pump maker, sponsored a prize, which went to a bra that helps women manually express breast milk — an age-old technique — without using hands.

Pumping, for the uninitiated, generally involves many complicated steps: finding a place to do it, putting on a special pumping bra, assembling the valves, tubes, bottles and various plastic parts that attach the pump to the breasts, then the actual pumping. At best, it is uncomfortable and awkward and at worst, painful.

  • Google Calendar outage leaves users frustrated

Google says it expects to have Google Calendar up and running normally following widespread reports of an outage.

Google said Thursday that users had been seeing “server error” messages when opening the app. It later said that service had been restored for some users already and it expected a resolution for all users in the near future.

Exasperated users took to Twitter to voice their frustration during the outage for the popular scheduling service. One user noted that Google Calendar going down “is like a snow day for adults.”