discipline – Page 6 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Xbox One gets Xbox 360 backwards compatibility with November 12 update

The new Xbox One dashboard, as originally shown off in June. The new Xbox One dashboard, which will usher in a bunch of new features including Xbox 360 backwards compatibility, will be released on November 12. Confirmation came via a tweet by Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb very early this morning. Microsoft first showed off the “New Xbox One Experience” (that’s its official name) back at E3 in June. The dashboard interface has been completely overhauled: now, instead of looking like the Windows 8 Start screen, it looks a bit more like a Windows 10 app. The interface is very flat, with a heavy focus on typography. Perhaps most importantly, settings, games, social updates, and all of the good stuff is much more easily accessible with a gamepad. The primary focus of the new dashboard, you’ll be happy to hear, is to make it faster and easier to do things. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Xbox One gets Xbox 360 backwards compatibility with November 12 update

Descent Underground recaptures that Descent multiplayer magic [Updated]

Video: the Descent Underground Early Access gameplay trailer. AUSTIN, TX—About a month ago, we called the retro-themed Descent -style shooter Sublevel Zero an awesome Descent -like experience but lamented its lack of multiplayer. Well, good news this morning for folks who are still craving multiplayer tunnel-shooting: as of 11:00 EDT, Descent Underground is available on Steam Early Access for $29.99. Players will be able to jump in and fly three classes of ships in five maps and a few different game modes. The product of a small Austin company called Descendent Studios founded by former Star Citizen Austin studio head Eric “Wingman” Peterson, Descent Underground was originally envisioned as a Descent clone under the working title “Ships That Fight Underground” (abbreviated as “STFU” ). However, the game changed course when an encounter with an Interplay shareholder led to a licensing agreement with Interplay, the studio that controls the bulk of the Descent intellectual property. The licensing deal meant that the game could be re-envisioned as an actual branded Descent game—though because the licensing agreement doesn’t include the character models or sound assets from the original trilogy, some creativity had to be applied. The result is Descent Underground, a prequel to the original Descent series. In it, the player takes on the role of a miner who remote-pilots drones through mines, blasting other drones and occasionally doing some actual mining to collect resources. Lead designer Peterson explained to us that the eventual goal is to have a metagame that has some hints of Dune about it: players will fly around in a large mothership, cruising through asteroid fields and looking for choice places to mine. A nice asteroid might already have another player group’s ship docked on it, and you can fly up next to it and deploy your own drones to try to fight them for the asteroid. (This is what’s going on in the launch trailer at the top of the page.) Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Descent Underground recaptures that Descent multiplayer magic [Updated]

Android 6.0 has a great auto backup system that no one is using (yet)

We recently published a rather lengthy review of Google’s newest operating system, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but there was one feature we couldn’t get working in time for the review: the new automatic backup feature for app data. The theory is that this feature would take all your app data, stick it in the cloud, and when you restore your phone or buy a new one, it would be like nothing ever changed—all your settings and logins would come back like magic. “Theory” is the key word, since we only had Google’s descriptions and the behavior of the Android M Developer Preview to go on for the review. One week and lots of research later, we think we’ve nailed down how the system works in the final version. What follows is a rewrite of the backup section that we’ll paste into the review, but since it is 95 percent new content and information, we’re giving it a separate article, too. If you’ve had any experience with the Developer Preview’s backup behavior, it really doesn’t apply to the final version. The Developer Preview took a brute force “back up everything” approach to app data, which in part was for Google’s testing to see how such a system would work. The final version takes a safer, consumer-ready route that has a lot more restrictions for what gets backed up. Read 32 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Android 6.0 has a great auto backup system that no one is using (yet)

Android 6.0 Marshmallow, thoroughly reviewed

(credit: Ron Amadeo) After a lengthy developer preview , the newest version of Google’s flagship operating system is finally ready for the masses. Android 6.0 Marshmallow is the 23rd version of Google’s “mobile” operating system, though it can accurately be described as “mobile” only if you’re referring to how much it gets around. With all the areas in which Google now tinkers, Marshmallow is destined for smartphones, tablets, watches, televisions, and cars, among others. Google says that the new release has a “back to basics” motif with a focus on “polish and quality.” Marshmallow makes many long-requested features a reality with selectable app permissions, a data backup system that actually works, and the ability to format SD cards as Ext4, allowing the system to treat cards just like internal storage. Marshmallow is also prepared for the future with support for USB Type-C’s power delivery spec, a Fingerprint authentication API, and 4K display support. And, as with any Android release, there’s also lots of new Googley stuff—a slick new search interface and a contextual search mode called “Google Now on Tap,” for example. While this is a review of the final build of “Android 6.0,” we’re going to cover many of Google’s apps along with some other bits that aren’t technically exclusive to Marshmallow. Indeed, big chunks of “Android” don’t actually live in the operating system anymore. Google offloads as much of Android as possible to Google Play Services and to the Play Store for easier updating and backporting to older versions, and this structure allows the company to retain control over its open source platform. As such, consider this a look at the shipping Google Android software package rather than just the base operating system. “Review: New Android stuff Google has released recently” would be a more accurate title, though not as catchy. Read 156 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Android 6.0 Marshmallow, thoroughly reviewed

How to make your own bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan USB install drive

Enlarge / Even in the download-only era, it’s easy to make yourself offline OS X install media. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) It was 2009 when Apple last released a new operating system on physical media . Things have proceeded remarkably smoothly since version 10.7 switched to download-only installers, but there are still good reasons to want an old, reliable USB stick. For instance, if you find yourself doing multiple installs, a USB drive may be faster than multiple downloads (especially if you use a USB 3.0 drive). Or maybe you need a recovery disk for older Macs that don’t support the Internet Recovery feature. Whatever the reason, you’re in luck, because it’s not hard to make one. As with last year , there are two ways to get it done. There’s the super easy way with the graphical user interface and the only slightly less easy way that requires some light Terminal use. Here’s what you need to get started. A Mac that you have administrator access to, duh. We’ve created El Capitan USB stick from both Yosemite and El Capitan, but your experience with other versions may vary. An 8GB or larger USB flash drive or an 8GB or larger partition on some other kind of external drive. For newer Macs, use a USB 3.0 drive—it makes things significantly faster. The OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer from the Mac App Store in your Applications folder. The installer will delete itself when you install the operating system, but it can be re-downloaded if necessary. If you want a GUI, you need the latest version of Diskmaker X app. As of this writing, version 5 is the one you’ll want for official El Capitan support, and it has been promised but not yet delivered. We’ll show you how to do it with version 4 and update the article when the update is released. Diskmaker X is free to download, but the creator accepts donations if you want to support his efforts. The easy way Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How to make your own bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan USB install drive

New Horizons sends back stunning partial-color images of a new world

A red/blue/infrared image of the dwarf planet reveals that many of the features we’d seen in earlier images have their own distinctive colors. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI ) When last week’s batch of images came down from New Horizons, a number of our readers complained that they were all in black and white. While they gave us a sense of the planet’s rugged features and complex geology, they really didn’t tell us what this icy world looks like. NASA may have been reading the article discussion because the latest batch of images handles the color issue—mostly. Rather than providing RGB images, however, the new batch has data on red, blue, and infrared. So it’s not full color yet, but you can revel in the fact you’re looking at information that your eyes can’t actually see. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI A red/blue/infrared image of the dwarf planet reveals that many of the features we’d seen in earlier images have their own distinctive colors. 5 more images in gallery In any case, the colors make the planet’s rugged mountains, which show up in red and brown, look even more distinctive compared to the beige-colored plains they border. A partial view of the planet at a specific infrared wavelength shows that the different colors also line up with different chemistries: methane ices are much more common in the icy plains of Pluto than they are in the mountains. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New Horizons sends back stunning partial-color images of a new world

iOS 9, thoroughly reviewed

Andrew Cunningham iOS 8 wasn’t the smoothest operating system rollout in Apple’s history. It’s true, any other ecosystem would kill for Apple’s OS adoption figures—as of this writing, 87 percent of the userbase is running some version of iOS 8. But it had a slower start than past versions of iOS, it required a ton of free space to install, and it had a few unfortunate bugs early in its life cycle that gave it a bad reputation. Like iOS 7 this was a big release, and with any big change comes the potential for big bugs. Viewed from that lens, iOS 9 feels kind of like iOS 6 did. This is a necessary spit-and-polish release that followed two bigger, transformative releases. There’s some good stuff here, but nothing that’s quite as all-encompassing as iOS 7’s complete redesign or iOS 8’s introduction for Handoff and Continuity and Extensions. Read 180 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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iOS 9, thoroughly reviewed

Apple’s new iPad Pro is an expansive 12.9 inches, available in November

We were expecting new iPhones today, and we were even expecting Apple TV announcements, but whether Apple would update its iPad line was more difficult to say. It seems Apple is bucking its own announce-new-iPads-in-October trend, however, because the company just added a 12.9″ iPad to its lineup. The so-called iPad Pro is 6.9mm thick and weighs 1.57 lbs—slightly heavier than the 1.54 lbs first-generation iPad. According to Apple, it will have a 10-hour battery life. The new tablet will be called the iPad Pro, and the entry-level version comes with a healthy 32GB of storage, rather than the 16GB of the other iPad base models. The iPad Pro also comes in a 128GB version. Pricing on those Wi-Fi-only tiers is $799 and $949. An LTE version (which comes with a 150mbps LTW modem) will only be available in the 128GB version, and will cost $1079. Apple confirmed that the iPad Pro’s screen has a 2732×2048 resolution, as had been rumored in the weeks leading up to this event, with 5.6 million pixels.Taking the stage at Apple’s launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller explained the design choice. “Let’s start with the display: Why make a bigger one?,” he said. “You can touch your documents, touch your books, interact with everything. It does things an iPhone can’t do since it doesn’t have to be pocketable, does things a notebook can’t do because it’s holdable.” Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple’s new iPad Pro is an expansive 12.9 inches, available in November

Apple unveils huge Apple TV upgrade with new remote, Siri more

SAN FRANCISCO—The Apple TV just got its first big update since March of 2012, and it’s a substantial upgrade for both hardware and software. The fourth-generation box should be much faster, and it will use that extra speed to run apps and games from its all-new app store. It also comes with a redesigned remote control to improve navigation, which has long been one of the Apple TV’s weak points. 13 more images in gallery The new remote control has a glass touch surface, and a button that allows access to Siri. While the touch surface lets users scroll through movies and shows, Siri lets customers find content from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Showtime, using their voice. “The TV experience itself hasn’t changed much in decades,” CEO Tim Cook said. “We believe the future of television is apps.” Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

AMD’s R9 Nano crams a full Fury X into a tiny 6-inch form factor

12 more images in gallery Earlier this year, AMD unveiled three new graphics cards: the R9 Fury X, R9 Fury, and R9 Nano. While the top-of-the-line water-cooled R9 Fury X and air-cooled R9 Fury have both since been released to positive reviews, the mini-ITX sized R9 Nano has remained something of a mystery. Fortunately, the Nano appears to have been worth the wait. While the Nano costs the same as a Fury X—$649, or about £530 (UK pricing is unconfirmed)—the diminutive card also sports same full-fat Fiji chip, which is crammed into its teeny 6-inch form factor. With the R9 Nano you get a full 4096 stream processors, 256 texture units, 64 ROPs, and 4GB of 4096-bit memory high-bandwidth memory operating at 1000MHz. AMD claims performance is around 8.2 TFLOPS, which is only five percent below that of the Fury X. Even better, the Nano needs just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, with a typical power consumption of 175W, which is miles below the 275W of the Fury X. Of course, such dramatic power savings have to come from somewhere, and for the Nano that means a reduction in clock speed. The Nano’s GPU is rated for “up to 1000MHz,” with AMD saying that under typical usage in most games it runs between 850MHz and 900MHz. That’s around a 14 percent decrease over the 1050MHz of the Fury X, but it’s still impressive given the Nano’s size. AMD puts performance somewhere between the Fury and Fury X, with the full shader count helping to mitigate the drop in clock speed versus the Fury. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AMD’s R9 Nano crams a full Fury X into a tiny 6-inch form factor