china – Page 10 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Mario and Sonic look absolutely stunning in Unreal Engine 4

Unreal Engine 4 has shown us what the next generation of video games can look like: large, realistic and mind-bogglingly gorgeous. Frankly, its tech demos are breathtaking — technical marvels that show off photo-realistic apartments and stunningly beautiful landscapes ; but what happens when you cram cartoonish mascots like Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog into these technical marvels? Mind-blowingly awesome YouTube videos, that’s what. It was bound to happen eventually. Back in March, Unreal made its incredibly popular game engine free to anybody who wants to use it, leaving amateur game developers with immediate access to professional game creation tools. Search around YouTube, and you’ll find more than a few folks using it to put our favorite game characters into hauntingly realistic worlds. Check it out: See that vast landscape? That’s the setting for Unreal Engine 4’s Kite demo, which shows off the engine’s ability to handle large worlds and procedural asset placement. YouTube user CryZenx decided it was the perfect place to drop in Sonic The Hedgehog. The resulting demo isn’t much of a game (though it does show off just how fast a blue hedgehog can run), but it binds the potential of Unreal Engine 4 to a familiar face — letting us imagine what the coming generation of games could really look like. CryZenX made a Mario demo, too — but the plumber looks a little out of place in the Unreal’s endless prairie. YouTuber Aryoksini put Mario in a more familiar environment, a series of castles and caverns more suited to his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom. The canned environments (taken directly from the Unreal marketplace) look a little too polished for the off-beat world Nintendo’s mascot normally inhabits, but it’s still a stunning look at where console gaming could be in a few short years. Want to see more? Hit up the YouTube search bar with “Unreal Engine 4” and your favorite video-game mascot. Let us know if you find anything good. Filed under: Gaming Comments Source: YouTube (1) , (2)

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Mario and Sonic look absolutely stunning in Unreal Engine 4

SanDisk’s wireless flash drive gives your phone more storage

For all the advances we’ve made in mobile computing, transferring files between your phone and your desktop is still kind of a pain in the ass. We’ve tried using dongles, adapters and even double-sided USB thumb drives , but none of them really solved the problem. Today, Sandisk announced a new solution: a wireless, battery-powered USB flash drive. SanDisk’s Connect Wireless Stick was actually designed to address two problems — the chore of moving files between devices and the internal storage limitations of modern smartphones. Want to cart some movies and high resolution pictures around with you, but only have 16GB of storage on your phone? Put them on the Connect Wireless Stick: it can hold up to 128GB and can stream data to your phone for 4.5 hours on a single charge. The stick can also automatically back up photos and videos from your phone’s the camera roll. Not bad. As a file transfer system, Sandisk’s new stick still sounds a little cumbersome — but as a small, wireless storage expansion system for iOS and Android devices, it’s pretty unique. Interested? It hits stores today for $30-100 in 16, 32, 64 and 128GB sizes. Filed under: Misc , Mobile Comments Source: BusinessWire

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SanDisk’s wireless flash drive gives your phone more storage

Surely someone cares about the official ‘Angry Birds’ sequel

Angry Birds revolutionized the mobile gaming market after its launch in 2009, and developer Rovio has since released numerous off-shoots , follow-up games and bits of retail merchandise , plus it’s working on an animated film due in theaters next April, starring Peter Dinklage and Maya Rudolph. Now, six years and 3 billion series downloads later, Angry Birds 2 is officially on its way. The sequel is due to hit app stores worldwide on July 30th and, yes, it seems the game will still feature exploding crates, a bunch of pigs and some deeply upset birds. Rovio doesn’t specify which app stores Angry Birds 2 is coming to, but it’s safe to expect a fairly comprehensive, simultaneous launch across iOS, Android, Amazon and Windows app stores. While Angry Birds remains a ubiquitous name in mainstream mobile-gaming conversations, it now operates in a crowded marketplace filled with fresh experiences such as Monument Valley , Device 6, Minecraft, Crossy Road, Goat Simulator, Five Nights at Freddy’s and thousands more. Surely Rovio wants excitement for Angry Birds to remain high ahead of its theatrical debut in April, so expect more announcements from the company after the launch of this month’s full-fledged sequel. Filed under: Gaming , HD Comments Source: Rovio

Judge says Uber should be suspended in California and fined $7.3 million

A California administrative judge ruled that Uber’s license to operate in California will be suspended in 30 days if it doesn’t appeal or start complying with state laws. Read the rest

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Judge says Uber should be suspended in California and fined $7.3 million

‘3D’ white graphene could revolutionize gadget cooling

Graphene seems to be the new millennium’s wonder material: it can be used to build more powerful processors , more efficient solar cells, better sounding headphones and, apparently, can even be deep-fried to create long-lasting batteries. Now, researchers at Rice University think that a “3D” variant of the material could change the way we cool our gadgets. Normal graphene is already a pretty good heat conductor, but it has limitations–heat moves easily across the surface of stacked graphene, but not so well across the material’s multiple layers. That problem, however, can be solved: according to simulations at Rice, creating 3D structures of white graphene with boron nitrade nanotubes can overcome these thermal limitations, allowing for unimpeded heat transfer in all directions. In laymen’s terms, that all means that this research could eventually lead to new, smaller, more efficient thermal solutions–making it possible for us to cool smaller and more powerful electronics in the future. Sounds good to me. [Image Credit: Sharsavari, Rice University] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Eureka Alert Source: ACS Publications

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‘3D’ white graphene could revolutionize gadget cooling

The Commodore PET Has Been Reincarnated As A Phone

The 1980s are back again! The guys who bought the Commodore name are releasing an Android smartphone for about $300. The price includes some bog standard specs but, most important, includes two emulators so you can play classic 1980s games right on your screen. The phone will appear in Europe first – including Italy and Poland – but if you remember programming guessing games in… Read More

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The Commodore PET Has Been Reincarnated As A Phone

Ditching RAM may lead to low-cost supercomputers

Many servers , supercomputers and other monster systems thrive on high-speed RAM to keep things running smoothly, but this memory is wildly expensive — and that limits not just the number of nodes in these clusters, but who can use them. MIT researchers may have a much more affordable approach in the future, though. They’ve built a server network (not shown here) that drops RAM in favor of cheaper and slower flash storage, yet performs just about as well. The key was to get the flash drives themselves (or specifically, their controllers) to pre-process some of the data, instead of making the CPUs do all the hard work. That doesn’t completely close the speed gap, but the differences are virtually negligible. In one test, 20 servers with 20TB of flash were about as fast as 40 servers with 10TB of RAM. This doesn’t mean that flash-centric computing will be useful absolutely everywhere. MIT has only demonstrated its technique helping out with database-heavy tasks like ranking web pages. This wouldn’t necessarily help much with tasks that depend more on calculations, and the networked design means it this RAM-less approach wouldn’t do much to help your home PC. All the same, this could help a lot if it lets your favorite cloud service run faster, or helps cost-conscious scientists devote money toward other projects. [Image credit: AP Photo/Jens Meyer] Filed under: Storage , Science Comments Source: MIT News

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Ditching RAM may lead to low-cost supercomputers

A Look At The Tech That Could Mean We Never Have To Charge Our Phones Again

Technology that can wirelessly power our devices on the go could change our world. Imagine never having to plug in your cell phone again, or technology that continuously keeps your electronic car battery running. According to Energous Corporation, that day is just around the corner. Energous’ WattUp is a wireless charger for electronic devices. It can charge your cell phone and… Read More

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A Look At The Tech That Could Mean We Never Have To Charge Our Phones Again

Play Lego Worlds, A New Minecraft Competitor From Lego, Right Now

When Minecraft came out, I heard a lot of people describe as sort of like virtual Lego. Now, there’s a game for which that description is even more apt: Lego Worlds, an open world building game that lets users create using virtual Lego bricks, and interact with the world as a customizable minifigure avatar. The launch trailer for the title is above, but it’s actually already… Read More

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Play Lego Worlds, A New Minecraft Competitor From Lego, Right Now

Duet Display Now Lets Your iPad Act As A Second Screen For Windows

Duet Display has added a feature that I frankly never thought it would get: Windows support! That means you can now use the app and a Lightning cable to use your iPad as a secondary display for your Windows PC or tablet. The app supports devices running either Windows 7 or Windows 8, letting you relish the extravagant advantage of multiple screens on the go even if you’re not cool enough… Read More

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Duet Display Now Lets Your iPad Act As A Second Screen For Windows