WD ships high-performance 4TB hard drive

Western Digital announces the availability of the 4TB WD Black, a hard drive that spins at 7,200rpm and costs $340. [Read more]

MediaPortal 1.14.0 Release

Attached to this news you will find the final version of MediaPortal 1.14. With this release we offer a number of bug fixes and made some improvements. Scroll down to the 'Full list of changes' to read up on all of them! Highlights of this release Where the focus was on The focus for this release was on bug fixing. We notably kept consolidating our remote control HID handler. We fixed potential slow startup issues with offline share. We added a couple of features like the display of Radio EPG in the NowPlaying screen (when available) and the GUI auto-update in Videos, Music and Pictures sections when files and folders are created, renamed or changed. For a full list, see below. Full list of changes You can review the complete change log for MP 1.14 Pre Release by using the link below: Changelog: MediaPortal You can review the complete change log for MP 1.14 Final Release by using the link below: Changelog: MediaPortal Documentation of new features can be found at the following link: What's new for MediaPortal 1.14.0 Final Release Installation, Upgrade, Download and Feedback Installation Since we switched to .NET4 you need to make sure you have.NET4 installed on your computer (not needed if you are on Windows 8 because it comes with .NET4, but you  NEED the .NET 3.5 features enabled! ). Otherwise you are not able to install MediaPortal and the installer just quits.Download-Link:  Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) Aside from that when doing a clean installation of the 1.14.0 Final Release there is nothing else to worry about. Upgrade Upgrading from MP 1.2.0 Beta or later to 1.14.0 Final Release All MediaPortal 1.2.0 Beta installations can be upgraded to MP 1.14.0 Final Release without losing your settings. Plugins: If you are running MediaPortal 1.6.0 or earlier, then it is possible that some of your previously installed plugins will be shown as incompatible after the upgrade to 1.14.0 Final Release! Whether or not a plugin is incompatible depends on the MediaPortal subsystems the plugin uses. All plugins that work for the 1.7.1 HotFix release, should also work with the 1.14.0 Final Release.   Upgrading Extensions: The easiest way to upgrade your extensions is by launching the  MediaPortal Extension Installer , and let it check for updated versions. However this only works for extensions that use our MPEI system. If the author of the extension releases it as a stand alone installer, you must contact them for an updated version. General note about Upgrades Manually stop TV-Service! On some systems our installer is not able to update the TV-Server installation because its files are locked or the service can not be stopped. For upgrades to 1.14.0 Final Release we recommend that you manually stop the TV-Service and make sure, via Windows Task Manager  (enable the "all users" option),  that the TvService.exe process is really gone before starting to upgrade. Custom TV-Service properties If you manually changed the properties of the TV-Service  (like restart on error options) , then you must redo these changes after the upgrade. The installer is not able to save and restore your custom service properties when it installs the new version of the TV-Service.  Feedback Bugs If you think you found a bug then please post a detailed report in our  Bug Reports Forum .Make sure your report includes  all the required information . Incomplete reports will be removed to keep the forum clean.  Download Finally - the download. We hope that you took the time to read this release news entirely because it includes vital information about the major changes.   If you would like to support MediaPortal, we would be happy to receive  a small donation ! The Team wishes you a lot of fun with this new release! .::. Download - MediaPortal 1.14.0 Final Release .::. :: Post a Comment ::

This Laser Printer Creates High-Res Color Images Without a Single Drop of Ink

Anyone with a color printer knows that selling replacement ink cartridges is the quickest way to become a millionaire. But what if your printer never needed a single drop of ink to produce color images at impossibly high resolutions? A new laser printer can already do that by etching microscopic patterns onto sheets… Read more...

Here’s the first non-Valve Steam Machine prototype, care of iBuyPower

That game console headlining this text? It isn't a white PS4 : it's a commercial Steam Machines box, or at least a prototype of one. iBuyPower tells us that it's building the box for a 2014 launch, but says it's still early. The company says the prototypes are running an early build of Steam OS , but it's not quite a finished product. That rings true of our impressions of Valve's own reference model , which hosted a version of that same OS devoid of media playback and streaming options and had a very limited selection of games. iBuyPower tells us that it actually has two models, codenamed Gordon and Freeman, in the works. The two consoles are identical, save for the light bar round the middle -- one model's is clear, while the other's is black when not illuminated. And, while the company wouldn't tell us about the boxes' internals, it did confirm that the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps. Not as much info as we'd like to know, but s till, it's good to see hints of what we'll see from Steam Machines when they hit the market -- though we'll likely have to wait until CES to see them in action. Filed under: Gaming Comments

Watching uranium emit radiation inside a cloud chamber is mesmerizing

Here's a really neat, classic experiment that's always fun to see. When you place uranium inside a cloud chamber, you can see it decay and emit bits of radiation. It's like seeing little alpha particle torpedoes shooting out in every direction, leaving a trail behind. Read more...

US Military Working On 3D Printing Exact Replicas of Bones & Limbs

ErnieKey writes The U.S. military is working with technology that will allow them to create exact virtual replicas of their soldiers. In case of an injury, these replicas could be used to 3D print exact medical models for rebuilding the injured patient's body and even exact replica implants. Could we all one day soon have virtual backups of ourselves that we can access and have new body parts 3D printed on demand? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This Laser Printer Creates High-Res Color Images Without a Single Drop of Ink

Anyone with a color printer knows that selling replacement ink cartridges is the quickest way to become a millionaire. But what if your printer never needed a single drop of ink to produce color images at impossibly high resolutions? A new laser printer can already do that by etching microscopic patterns onto sheets… Read more...

Watch this experiment on mice squeezing through tiny holes

Woodworker Matthias Wandel has mice in his workshop, and he wanted to see how small a hole mice could crawl through . But after setting up his ingenious little test, a challenger appears: the wily shrew! (more…)

Google’s mysterious Fuchsia OS looks like an Android re-do

When we last looked at Google's Fuchsia operating system , it was very modest. While it was designed for everything from Internet of Things devices to PCs, there wasn't even a graphical interface to show. Well, things have... evolved. Ars Technica has revisited Fuchsia several months later, and it now touts an interface (nicknamed Armadillo) that makes it clear this isn't just some after-hours experiment. It's only a set of placeholders at the moment, but it gives you a good idea as to what to expect. The home screen is a large, vertically scrolling list of cards for "stories, " or collections of apps and OS components that work together to complete a given task. There's also a Google Now -style section that has "suggestion" cards for tasks -- use them and you'll either add to an existing story or create a new one. The prototype UI also includes a simple split-screen interface, and scales up to tablet size. Fuchsia isn't based on Linux, like Android or Chrome OS, but it still uses open source code that would let anyone tinker with the inner workings. Apps, meanwhile, are built using Google's Flutter kit, which lets developers write both Android and iOS apps. Things are clearly coming along. But there's one overriding question: just what role will Fuchsia have? Google's Travis Geiselbrecht stresses that this "isn't a toy thing, " but there's no public strategy. Ars speculates that Google is treating this as a sort of Android re-do: what if the company could design a platform while dumping all the technology it no longer needs or wants, such as Linux or any traces of Java ? The use of Flutter would let you run Android apps until there's broader software support. It might take years before Fuchsia is ready for public use, assuming that's the ultimate plan, but there could be a day where Android is no longer the center of Google's computing universe. Source: Ars Technica

After its acquisition of Waze this past June, Google announced this morning that it...

After its acquisition of Waze this past June, Google announced this morning that it is deploying real time incident reports from Waze users to Google Maps mobile and apps users. Waze users can now search with Google, too. And if you're into mapmaking, the Waze Map Editor now includes Google Street View. [ Google and Waze ] Read more...