Tag: gaming

6 flying cars that let you soar over traffic

By Cat DiStasio The dream of flight has entranced humans for centuries, and modern innovators won’t quit until the flying cars of sci-fi movies are realized. Although today’s traffic jams still happen on the ground level, plenty of engineers have their eyes and minds on the sky. It’s fascinating, if not intoxicating, to dream of the day when we might one day be able to take to the skies in a vehicle of our own, but until then, we can revel in prototypes built by dreamers with the capital to turn their high-flying ideas into a reality. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.Slideshow-329306

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6 flying cars that let you soar over traffic

Wii U emulator (almost) runs ‘Mario Kart 8’ on your PC

Want a Wii U but don’t want to own Nintendo’s latest console ? That’s sort of possible now. I emphasize the “sort of” because the recently released Cemu emulator is almost entirely broken at this point. There isn’t proper gamepad support, there’s absolutely no audio and the game video stutters and glitches pretty badly in most cases if the titles launch at all. For example, in Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD ‘s attract mode (the opening menu screen), little Toon Link looks he has some seriously Donnie Darko -esque energy tubes coming out of his chest, stretching far out from his cliffside overlook on Outset Island. Peep it in the video embedded below. “Contains basically no optimizations, ” the download page reads. “Expect slow frame rates and long load times.” It’s still very early days for the program, but the developers are planning on sending updates every two weeks. You’ll need a 64-bit Windows 7 (or higher) machine with an NVIDIA card and the most recent driver set to get started. Oh, and some patience. But who knows, with some time, this could turn into something as cool as the vaunted Dolphin emulator that runs Gamecube games in pretty stunning high def. For now though, you’re better off with a Wii U if you want to play Super Mario Maker . [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images] Source: Gbatemp

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Wii U emulator (almost) runs ‘Mario Kart 8’ on your PC

Adobe and Dropbox make it easier to edit PDFs from the cloud

Dropbox got cozy with Microsoft Office back in the spring, offering a way to easily edit files stored in its cloud-based repository. Now, Dropbox is getting friendly with Adobe Document Cloud, too. More specifically, the company is playing nice with Adobe Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader to serve up quick and easy access to edit PDF documents . Once you connect your Dropbox account with the Adobe apps, you’ll be able to pull in files without leaving the app. What’s more, when you’re browsing files in Dropbox, you’ll have the option to open a PDF in the appropriate Adobe app to edit, e-sign, comment and markup the file as needed. And as you might expect, no matter how you open the document or which device you’re using, everything automatically syncs in Dropbox across desktop and mobile. PDFs are by far the most common file format stored with the could-driven storage service, and now its improving the workflow for power users. The new functionality goes live on the desktop today with iOS integration arriving “in the coming months.” Android users can expect to employ the PDF-editing workflow next year. Slideshow-328120

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Adobe and Dropbox make it easier to edit PDFs from the cloud

Firefox will stop supporting web plugins (except for Flash) by the end of 2016

Horrible browser plugins used to offer extended multimedia features for website, often at the cost of a much worse overall experience — thankfully, they’re going the way of the dodo. Chrome recently banished plugins like Java and Silverlight (and made auto-playing Flash ads disabled by default ), and now Firefox is doing the same. Mozilla just announced in a blog post that nearly all old-school plugins will not be supported in Firefox by the end of 2016. That’s a long ways away, but it’s still good news. Naturally, the impossible-to-kill Adobe Flash platform is exempted from this doom, but everything else will be completely disabled. Mozilla also noted that new platforms, like the 64-bit Firefox for Windows, will launch without plugin support since they don’t have to support a legacy base of users. Let’s take a moment of thanks for standards like HTML5 making the web a better place to browse and start counting down the days until Flash can join Java in the internet’s trash pile. Via: PC World Source: Mozilla

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Firefox will stop supporting web plugins (except for Flash) by the end of 2016

Google is purging hacked spam from your search results

It’s bad when your web searches include sites that are mainly marketing fluff , but it’s much worse when that fluff has been hacked into legitimate sites that you wouldn’t visit otherwise. Well, Google has had enough of this attempt to game the system. It’s tweaking its algorithms to “aggressively” cull hacked spam from results, leaving you only with sites that intended to include the content you’re looking for. While the changes will only affect about 5 percent of searches when all is said and done, that could mean a lot if it helps you avoid compromised pages and the malware that might be lurking inside. [Image credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan] Source: Google Webmaster Central Blog

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Google is purging hacked spam from your search results

These 8K displays may end up on your next tablet

Most of us have barely touched 4K content, but the keen folks in Japan are already showing off some 8K displays, and we’re not just talking about those of conventional TV sizes. At CEATEC, NHK brought along three upcoming 8K panels that may end up on future tablets, laptops and monitors. These include JDI’s 17.3-inch LCD that was just announced last week, as well as Ortus’ insanely sharp 9.6-inch LCD (that’s a whopping 915 dpi!) from May, and Sharp/SEL’s 13.3-inch OLED display. Even though the OLED panel was unveiled back in June last year, it’s still by far the best 8K display out of the three; it’s as if you’re looking into another world, thanks to the combination of high contrast, strong vibrancy plus insanely sharp resolution. Alas, there’s no launch date for any of these just yet, but a spokesperson from NHK hopes to see these come out before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will be broadcast in 8K .

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These 8K displays may end up on your next tablet

Windows 10 is now installed on 110 million devices

With Windows 10 being a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users, it’s no surprise that many have jumped at the chance to see what Microsoft’s latest OS has to offer . In fact, only a day after its release, the company counted 14 million installs , which sky-rocketed to 75 million less than a month after that. At the “Windows 10 devices” event today, Microsoft’s Terry Myerson provided a brief update, announcing that figure has now reached a whopping 110 million. That’s quite the number, especially considering Windows 10 has only been out for around 10 weeks . The overwhelming majority of installs are coming from regular consumers, too, with just over 8 million attributed to business PCs. Get all the news from today’s Microsoft event right here .

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Windows 10 is now installed on 110 million devices

Android Marshmallow begins rolling out to Nexus devices today

As expected , Nexus owners are in for a treat this week as Google’s latest OS revisions begins rolling out to select devices. According to a post on the Official Android Blog , the Nexus 5, 6, 7 (the 2013 model), 9 and Player are all in line to receive the over-the-air software update starting today. The newly released Nexus 5x and 6P handsets, of course, come with Marshmallow already installed. [Image Credit: Shutterstock] Source: Android Blog

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Android Marshmallow begins rolling out to Nexus devices today

Adobe’s ‘core’ design apps are now all touch-friendly on Windows

When the Surface Pro 3 was announced last spring, Adobe revealed that it was working on touch-friendly versions of its design apps for Windows. At today’s Max event , the company announced that its collection “core” apps are ready to accept your swipes and taps on compatible devices, like Microsoft’s slate, with new Touch Workspaces. Photoshop and Illustrator already had some touch-based features, but now there’s an expanded software lineup that’ll let you get hands-on with your work across audio, video, motion graphics and graphic design projects. This means that Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition all accept input with your fingers, in addition the regular ol’ keyboard, trackpad or stylus. And Photoshop’s finger-friendly tools have been revamped to improve performance. Adobe’s timing couldn’t be better either, as Microsoft is poised to announce some new devices in a matter of hours. Source: Adobe

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Adobe’s ‘core’ design apps are now all touch-friendly on Windows

Mealworms convert Styrofoam waste into usable soil

Researchers have found a scourge for the 33 million tons of plastic dumped each year in the US: mealworms. A team from Stanford and China’s Beihang University found that the beetle larvae stay perfectly healthy eating just Styrofoam, which is normally considered non-biodegradable. Better still, the worms convert the plastic to CO2 and waste that’s safe to use as soil for crops. The scientists were as surprised by the discovery as you might be. “There’s a possibility of really important research coming out of bizarre places, ” said Stanford professor Craig Criddle. “This is a shock.” Mealworms don’t have some kind of magic digestive system, of course. Earlier research has showed that microorganisms in the stomachs of Indian mealmoths can digest the polyethylene plastic used in garbage bags. The scientists now plan to study such bacteria to see whether they can biodegrade plastics used in automotive components and microbeads that pollute water supplies. The goal is to eventually cut out the middleman (“middleworm”?) and isolate the bioenzymes used by microorganisms to break down the plastics. That could result in new methods of reducing plastic waste that’s already in the environment, and new types of bio-plastics that won’t accumulate on land or at sea. Source: Stanford University

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Mealworms convert Styrofoam waste into usable soil