The new ‘Portal’ game is a ‘Bridge Constructor’ spin-off

Fans have been waiting with little hope for a third entry in the beloved Portal franchise since the second game came out in 2011. It seems Valve has answered their prayers -- kind of. Instead of another first-person teleporting puzzle adventure, the next Portal -branded title is a standalone spin-off of the popular Bridge Constructor game . If a marriage of both those franchises is up your alley, snag it for desktop or mobile on December 20th. As the trailer illustrates, the game packs in the endearingly wild physics of Bridge Constructor with the titular teleporting ovals of Portal . Sure, it's not the Portal 3 everyone really wants, but it's probably the closest we'll get since Valve doesn't really make games anymore (they handed this one off to studios Headup and ClockStone Software). Bridge Constructor Portal will cost $10 for the PC, MacOS and Linux versions and $5 for the iOS and Android apps, all of which come out December 20th. Console editions will follow in early 2018. Via: Ars Technica Source: 'Bridge Constructor Portal' trailer (YouTube)

LEDs in an Engagement Ring

Ben's engagement ring is awesome not only because it lights up, but because it lights up when he and his girlfriend hold hands: Putting a battery of capacitor inside a ring is nigh impossible, so [Ben] decided to power the LEDs with an inductive charging circuit. A coil of wire wound around kapton tape serves as the inductor and a small SMD capacitor powers three very bright and very tiny LEDs. The inductive charging unit itself is a masterpiece of hackery; [Ben] wanted the ring to light up whenever he and his ladyfriend were holding hands. To do this, [Ben]‘s inductive charger is also a wearable device: a large coil of wire is the charger’s transformer and was would to fit around [Ben]‘s wrist. The entire charging circuit can be easily hidden under a jacket sleeve, making for a nearly magical light-up ring. You can watch a video of the ring at the link. Link

3D-Printed Mini Human Liver Survives 40 Days, Works Like the Real Thing

Organovo's 3D-printed mini-liver just shattered its own record, carrying out the same cellular functions as a natural human liver for 40 days in the lab. That may not seem like a lot — human liver cells are replaced about every 300 to 500 days — but the company's previous millimeter-sized liver slivers only managed five days. The trick: Organovo uses the same mix of hepatocytes (the cells that carry out liver functions) and endothelial cells (which form the liver's architectural support) found in nature, leading cells to develop more naturally than other experiments that used only the functional cells. It's a small but significant step for the more than 120, 000 people on organ transplant waiting lists worldwide. Read more...        

The Blackbelt lets you 3D print really long items

 The conveyor belt has long been the center of wacky adventures. From Charlie Chaplin to Lucy, things whizzing by on a flat belt has made for comedy gold. Now you can watch your 3D printed objects whiz past on the Blackbelt, a conveyor system for FDM printing that lets you build huge objects. The Blackbelt Kickstarter will launch in 3 days and you can expect the system to cost about 9, 500 for… Read More

Apple unveils OS X 10.9, “Mavericks”

Apple today unveiled OS X 10.9 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), showing off the first major revision of the Mac's operating system since last year's Mountain Lion . Apple has apparently run out of cat names and is now naming releases after places in California, where OS X is developed. The new OS X is thus named " Mavericks ." Developers are being given a preview version of Mavericks today. It will be available to the general public in the fall. New features include tabs in the Finder, allowing multiple Finder windows to be drawn together in tabs. Apple is bringing tagging to documents—any tags you add to a document will appear in the Finder sidebar and in iCloud. Multiple tags can be added to each document, and these tags will allow new search capabilities. Mavericks will make life easier for users who have multiple monitors. Menus will be spread across the different displays, and users will be able to take a window full-screen on one display without disturbing the desktop on another display. HDTVs connected to Apple TV boxes can also act as displays. Mission Control has been "super charged for multiple displays," Apple said, making it easier to drag apps and windows from one monitor to another. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

This New App Wants to Fight Your Parking Tickets For You

It's happened to all of us. You get back to your car after a delicious brunch or productive visit to the bookstore only to find a demonic little slip of paper tucked under your windshield wiper. "But the meter was broken!" you think. "I'm going to contest this!" you say to yourself. No, you're not. Read more...        

Windows 10 fall update will restore (and improve) OneDrive’s best feature

Microsoft Windows 10 was a big improvement over Windows 8.1 in most important ways, but it made a big change to the way OneDrive syncing worked. In Windows 8.1, you could see all the files you had stored in OneDrive, but the operating system would only actually download and open the file when you needed to open it. At least for PCs that usually have Internet connections, this was a neat way to offer cloud file syncing without consuming gigabytes of space for infrequently used files on every computer you were signed into. But the behavior could be error-prone—apps could attempt to open the placeholder files created by OneDrive rather than the files themselves—and it could create confusion about which files were actually available offline. So in the initial releases of Windows 10, Microsoft changed the behavior to be more Dropbox-esque . All OneDrive files are now downloaded to your PC when you sign in, though as with Dropbox you can choose to only sync selected folders based on what you need to have available at all times. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Tesla starts pre-orders on solar roof for $1,000, rolls out calculator for costs

Enlarge / Tesla is starting pre-orders on smooth and textured black glass solar roofs. (credit: Tesla) Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter on Wednesday that the company’s solar roof panels would be available for pre-order that afternoon. In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Tesla and SolarCity executives said the roof would be cheaper, on the whole, than installing a regular tile roof (although not cheaper than an asphalt roof). Pre-orders require a $1,000 payment to secure a place on the list. Tesla also rolled out a calculator on its website using data from Google Sunroof , a 2015 project from the search giant that used 3D modeling to map out every house’s potential for solar panel output. Tesla’s calculator factors in the cost of a 14kWh Powerwall, although purchase of a Powerwall is not required to get a solar roof, as well as any tax incentives that a customer might receive in their state. The "energy value" number featured most prominently is calculated over 30 years, which is the length of the warranty covering power production from the tiles. (Tesla is offering an "infinity warranty" on the tiles themselves.) Tesla Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

MPS-YouTube Is a Terminal-Based Youtube Player and Downloader

Windows/Mac/Linux: YouTube is a bloated site with a lot going on. If you really want to simplify using it, MPS-YouTube is a YouTube player that works entirely in Terminal. Read more...

Barnes & Noble’s Latest Tablet Is Running Spyware From Shanghai

Long-time Slashdot reader emil writes about how ADUPS, an Android "firmware provisioning" company specializing in both big data collection of Android usage and hostile app installation and/or firmware control, has been found pre-loaded on Barnes and Noble's new $50 tablet: ADUPS was recently responsible for data theft on BLU phones and an unsafe version of the ADUPS agent is pre-loaded on the Barnes and Noble BNTV450. ADUPS' press releases claim that Version 5.5 of their agent is safe, but the BNTV450 is running 5.2. The agent is capable of extracting contacts, listing installed apps, and installing new apps with elevated privilege. Azzedine Benameur, director of research at Kryptowire, claims that "owners can expect zero privacy or control while using it." Read more of this story at Slashdot.