‘Final Fantasy XV’ lands September 30th, ten years in the making

Final Fantasy XV hits PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 30th, Square Enix announced during its Uncovered live event in Los Angeles. The release date may not be a surprise for everyone, considering it leaked a tad early , but this announcement marks official confirmation. A new teaser for FFXV launches tonight, called Platinum Demo , and it’s free to download on PS4 and Xbox One. PC players, you’re out of luck — for now. FFXV director Hajime Tabata told Engadget that the studio isn’t currently working on a PC version of the game. But, Tabata said he was “aware of the big call for a PC version.” “Unfortunately we weren’t able to do simultaneous development on a PC and console version for XV, ” he said. “We had to focus on the console version and our goal was to maximize, optimize everything for the HD consoles. Once that’s done, then we will definitely take a good, hard look at PC and what we need to do, and consider all our options. But right now we aren’t decided, we’re still considering a lot of things.” For Xbox One and PS4 players, there is a Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Collector’s Edition available to purchase on the official Square Enix online store. FFXV stars Prince Noctis and his friends as they take one final, epic road trip together before Noctis is married to a neighboring princess. Players will control Noctis only throughout the entire game, though his friends are independent AI helpers and he can give commands to them. The main characters in FFXV have rich backstories and personalities, and these will be on full display in two supplemental pieces of media set to launch before the game itself. Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV is a five-episode animated series from A-1 Pictures, the studio behind Sword Art Online and Black Butler . Its story focuses on the strong emotional bonds connecting Noctis and his best buds, and explains how they became friends. The first episode is available now for free on YouTube . Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is a full-length, 3D-animated feature film a la Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children , directed by veteran Final Fantasy director and animator Takeshi Nozue. It takes place during the events of FFXV , but it focuses on King Regis (Noctis’ dad) and the Crown City once the bro trip leaves the kingdom. Game of Thrones stars Lena Headey and Sean Bean provide their voice-acting talents to the film, as does Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul. Kingsglaive will be released digitally in 2016, and the studio is still figuring out if it will pursue other formats as well. FFXV has traveled a long and rocky path toward release: Square Enix announced it in 2006 under the name Final Fantasy Versus XIII , but over the years, it changed titles and directors. Final Fantasy XV is led by Type-0 director Tabata, who took over from long-time Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts mastermind Tetsuya Nomura.

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‘Final Fantasy XV’ lands September 30th, ten years in the making

Transparent Wood Could Replace Glass, Become Coolest Building Material Ever

Wood is a great material because it’s cheap, renewable, and versatile. But this crazy transparent wood that scientists in Sweden brewed up is nuts. It could replace glass for some seriously eye-catching architecture, and even be used in cheap solar panels or windows. Read more…

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Transparent Wood Could Replace Glass, Become Coolest Building Material Ever

First USB-Powered 8TB Drive Is as Portable as a Flash Drive

Keeping the number of power cords dangling off your desk to a minimum usually means settling for a smaller capacity backup drive that draws all the power it needs from a single USB cable. But Seagate’s new Innov8 drive packs 8TB of storage into an external closure that doesn’t need to draw power from an outlet. Read more…

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First USB-Powered 8TB Drive Is as Portable as a Flash Drive

Adobe Acrobat Reader Can Now Edit PDFs Directly From Your Dropbox On Android

Android: I hate dealing with PDFs. I understand why they’re necessary, but loading them is a pain and editing them is even worse. So, Adobe’s news that Acrobat Reader can edit PDFs stored in your Dropbox is a godsend. Read more…

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Adobe Acrobat Reader Can Now Edit PDFs Directly From Your Dropbox On Android

How to Make Chocolate from the Fruit to the Candy Bar

Do you know where chocolate comes from? Apparently, not from the checkout line at grocery stores! How to Make Everything shows how to make chocolate from scratch, from the fruit of the cacao tree to the fermentation to the sun drying process to making sugar and cocoa butter to the grinding and tempering and molding of the chocolate bar. There are so many steps, it’s a wonder how we ever figured it out. Read more…

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How to Make Chocolate from the Fruit to the Candy Bar

The Maker of Java is Seeking $9.3 Billion From Google

There is a long-running legal battle between Oracle and Google over the use of Java, an Oracle product, in Android. In the latest court filing, Oracle is shooting for the moon: $9.3 billion in copyright damages from Google. Read more…

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The Maker of Java is Seeking $9.3 Billion From Google

A Virus Has Forced an Entire Hospital Chain to Shut Down Its Computers

Hackers and hospital computers are a bad mix , as a string of attacks has been proving. The latest victim is MedStar Health, a company that operates a chain of hospitals around the Baltimore and Washington area. Read more…

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A Virus Has Forced an Entire Hospital Chain to Shut Down Its Computers

The Concept Art for Las Vegas’ ‘Mars World’ Looks Nuts

It’s long been said that space tourism will be big business. Whole spaceports have sprung up ( and basically died ) in belief of that economic promise. The problem is that shooting people past our bubble of atmosphere, safely and reliably, is still tricky. Not to mention you need to be rich as hell or dead to even consider it. Read more…

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The Concept Art for Las Vegas’ ‘Mars World’ Looks Nuts

Toyota will make automatic braking near-standard by 2017

Worried that you might not stop your Camry in time to avoid a nasty collision? Toyota is determined to prevent that from happening going forward. The Japanese car maker has announced that its automatic braking systems will be standard on 25 out of 30 Toyota and Lexus models, at nearly every trim level, by the end of 2017. It’ll only be non-standard on the 4Runner, 86 (formerly the Scion FR-S), Mirai , Lexus GX and Scion iA. Just what you’ll get will vary: while Lexus only has one braking system (based on a camera and millimeter wave radar), Toyota has both laser- and millimeter wave-based variants. Whatever you get, though, it’s a big step forward for safety and semi-autonomous driving in one of the world’s biggest vehicle brands. You probably won’t have to fork over extra just to minimize the chances of a crash, whether you’re driving a frugal Yaris or a decked-out Lexus LX. Via: TechCrunch Source: Toyota

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Toyota will make automatic braking near-standard by 2017

Netflix is the one limiting its video quality on AT&T and Verizon

Last week as T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that his company’s Binge On program would expand to cover YouTube, he mentioned a strange point: that even the “mobile optimized” 480p Netflix streams T-Mobile offers were higher-res than what you get streaming via AT&T or Verizon. Executives from those companies said they don’t reduce the resolution of videos on their networks, although tests revealed that Legere was right — Netflix does only stream at 360p on AT&T and Verizon. Now the Wall Street Journal has reported that the culprit behind this restriction was actually Netflix itself. 7/ @TMobile has been listening to customers and thanks to a little partnership, @YouTube is now a #BingeOn partner! https://t.co/VQVZoM86Jh — John Legere (@JohnLegere) March 17, 2016 In an odd wrinkle on net neutrality discussions over whether or not broadband providers might restrict video quality of streaming companies they compete with, Netflix chose to limit its own quality on those two networks. Through a blog post and statements to WSJ , Netflix explains that it set a cap at 600kbps to avoid using up too much data under the caps set by those providers for their customers. Sprint and T-Mobile were apparently exempt because of a history of “more consumer friendly policies.” It all makes sense considering how quickly users can chew through bandwidth caps with HD video on mobile, although it seems odd that it wasn’t made clear until now. According to Netflix, this hasn’t been an issue for its users, who are more concerned about saving bandwidth than quality. However, it will soon introduce a “data saver” feature on its mobile apps to let users choose what bandwidth they want to stream over cellular networks — just in case you’re willing to burn a few GB so you can actually see what’s going on in Daredevil . Source: Netflix Blog , Wall Street Journal

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Netflix is the one limiting its video quality on AT&T and Verizon