Tag: video-games

Office 2016 and Office for Windows touchscreens are due later this year

Word for Windows 10. These touch-optimized apps are separate from the desktop Office suite. 5 more images in gallery The Office tablet and phone apps for iOS and Android both ship with a touch-optimized subset of the features of the full flagship Office suite, and even though Microsoft is readying an Office release for Windows phones and tablets, the desktop version will still reign supreme. Microsoft says that the next version of the flagship suite, dubbed Office 2016, will be “generally available in the second half of 2015.” It will remain optimized for keyboards and mice. The touch-optimized Office apps for Windows 10 are still on their way, though, and Microsoft has shared some screenshots that show what the apps will look like on both phones and tablets. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook Mail, and Outlook Calendar for Windows 10 (the official product names) unsurprisingly share a lot in common with the touchscreen apps for other platforms. Microsoft released Office for iPad in March of 2014 , and that UI has served as the foundation for all the tablet versions of the suite, including the still-in-beta Android version . The phone-sized versions of the apps look more like the new iPhone versions released in November , not like the limited versions that are currently available on Windows phones. The Outlook app for Windows 10 is something we haven’t seen on other platforms yet. Microsoft has released Outlook clients for iOS and Android, but they only support business-class Office 365 accounts and are more or less just wrappers for the standard Outlook Web client. The version for Windows 10 looks more full-featured, more closely resembling the desktop version of Outlook, at least in the three-column tablet view. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Office 2016 and Office for Windows touchscreens are due later this year

USB 3.1 and Type-C: The only stuff at CES that everyone is going to use

I have a USB Type-C cable—yeah, the reversible one . I can’t connect it to anything I own yet, but it’s a real thing that’s in production and shipping to companies. Most of CES amounts to so much smoke and mirrors and vague hand-waving about the Future, but I can say with confidence that this little port is a thing that everyone reading this will start using in the next couple of years. I got the cable from the USB Implementers Forum as part of a general update on the state of both USB 3.1 and the new reversible Type-C connector. There wasn’t much information about either spec that we haven’t already heard, but the difference is that the connector and spec update are very close to being in our hands. Early adopters, and where we’ll see Type-C connectors Products using either the Type-C connector, the USB 3.1 spec, or both are already floating around CES—there’s the Nokia N1 Android tablet on the mobile side, and MSI’s new USB 3.1 laptop and motherboard on the PC side. By the end of the year, we expect to see more mainstream products taking up the standard as well. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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USB 3.1 and Type-C: The only stuff at CES that everyone is going to use

Hands on with Intel’s new mini-desktops: Faster, smaller, more expandable

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—Intel released its next wave of Broadwell processors this week at CES, and PC companies are already preparing systems with the chips inside ( Lenovo’s new X1 Carbon and the new Dell XPS 13 are among our favorites so far). Intel is also taking this opportunity to refresh some of its own offerings, most notably the “Next Unit of Computing” (NUC) mini desktop PCs . NUCs exist somewhere between classic DIY computer-building projects and ready-made systems from OEMs. Intel supplies a motherboard inside of a box, and you get to pick the what RAM and SSD you want to use and install them yourself. Intel will be refreshing all of its high-to-mid-end NUCs in the next few months, and these boxes will serve both as systems for people who want a small but fairly capable PC and as a showcase for the new features in Broadwell-U. We got to see and hold the new desktops ourselves, and in addition to the expected upgrades, they bring some interesting features to the platform. A wider range of systems Andrew Cunningham The short Broadwell NUC on top of the Haswell NUC on top of the Ivy Bridge NUC. Year by year, they keep shrinking. 4 more images in gallery Intel is launching a total of seven separate NUC configurations, five that are aimed at the consumer market and two that are intended for use in businesses. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Hands on with Intel’s new mini-desktops: Faster, smaller, more expandable

TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range

LAS VEGAS, NEV.—In what’s becoming a yearly tradition for Ars, we met up with Austin-based TrackingPoint at CES to see what was new in the world of “Precision Guided Firearms”—the term the company uses to refer to its Linux-powered rifles. Last year, TrackingPoint had just taken the wraps off of its AR-15 PGF (which we got to shoot a few months later ), and this year we got to take a peek at a new prototype weapon that can accurately put rounds on targets up to a mile away—targets that can be moving up to 30 miles per hour. Dubbed the “Mile Maker,” the prototype was described by TrackingPoint representative Anson Gordon as “mostly” representative of the final product. The weapon at least for now is built around an enormous, enormously heavy, custom-milled steel barrel, which fires what TrackingPoint is calling “338TP”—a round somewhat similar to .338 Lapua Magnum but with some customized attributes. The company decided to continue on with their own cartridges for the longer-range rifle instead of moving up to a bigger round (like .50 BMG) because of the superior ballistics of the .338 bullet over the bigger .50 round. Lee Hutchinson TrackingPoint’s “Mile Maker” prototype. 7 more images in gallery Previously the longest range TrackingPoint’s weapons could accurately hit was about 1,200 yards with the company’s XM1 bolt-action rifle; the “Mile Maker” adds 600 effective yards onto the range of the XM1 by using different rounds, a longer barrel, and most importantly, updated software in the computerized tracking scope. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range

Intel’s “Compute Stick” is a full Windows or Linux PC in an HDMI dongle

Andrew Cunningham The Intel Compute Stick is a full PC in an HDMI dongle. 3 more images in gallery LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—Set-top boxes and streaming sticks are decent, cost-effective ways to turn the TV you already have into a “smart TV,” but Intel has an intriguing new option for those of you who want something a little more versatile. The Intel Compute Stick is a full Bay Trail PC complete with a USB port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a micro SD expansion slot, and you’ll be able to get them with both Windows 8.1 and Linux. We got a chance to see and hold the stick at CES this week. It’s just a bit bigger and bulkier than simple sticks like the Chromecast or the Fire TV stick, but they’re all basically comparable in size. The stick is big enough to block one or more neighboring HDMI ports depending on how your TV or monitor is laid out, but Intel says it will bundle a short extension cable you can use to keep this from happening. The stick has a number of potential applications—in a business, you could hook it up to any HDMI monitor and create a makeshift all-in-one PC, or hook it up to a TV for use as a digital signage kiosk. At home, plugging it into your TV would give you something less than a full HTPC, but something much more capable than a basic streaming stick or even most streaming set-top boxes. The biggest problem for now is that the stick cannot be powered over HDMI—you’ll need a powered USB port or a USB power adapter if you want to be able to turn the thing on. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Intel’s “Compute Stick” is a full Windows or Linux PC in an HDMI dongle

Hackers Leak Xbox One SDK Claiming Advancement In Openness and Homebrew

MojoKid writes Microsoft, it seems, just can’t catch a break. Days after a major hack took its servers offline on Christmas day, and after being lambasted in multiple stories for shipping games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection in nigh-unplayable condition, the company’s Xbox One SDK has been leaked to the public by a group calling itself H4LT. H4LT, which apparently objects to being called a hacker group, offered this explanation when asked why it was distributing the SDK. The group claims that “the SDK will basically allow the community to reverse and open doors towards homebrew applications being present on the Xbox One.” To be clear, what H4LT has done is a far cry from groups like Lizard Squad. The SDK for any given product is typically available behind some degree of registration, but they don’t necessarily cost anything. The SDK is one small component of creating the ecosystem that would be necessary to get homebrew up and running on the platform. Whether or not users will ever pull it off is another question” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hackers Leak Xbox One SDK Claiming Advancement In Openness and Homebrew

The Nerdiest Way to Play Quake Is Also the Coolest

Forget gaming PCs. Forget Doom on an ATM . Forget Super Smash Bros. on a graphing calculator . The only game worth playing is Quake on an oscillascope. I mean, holy crap would you look at this thing? It’s as nerdy as it is awesome. Read more…

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The Nerdiest Way to Play Quake Is Also the Coolest

Google Tracker 2015: Everything we know Google is working on for the new year

The New Year is almost here, and that means it’s time for the bi-annual Google Tracker, our round up all of Google’s news, rumors, and acquisitions. Hopefully it paints a clearer picture of what will happen with the company in the future. We’re not really predicting launch dates or guaranteeing that everything in this article will launch in 2015, we’re outlining a list of projects and initiatives currently underway at Google HQ. Think of it as a big “to-do” list for Google—things can be delayed, moved around, or canceled, but to the best of our knowledge, this is a good synopsis of the company’s current goals. The 2013-2014 version of the Ars Google Tracker worked out pretty well: Android Wear, Google Play Games, Android One, the Nexus Player, YouTube Music Key, and many features of Lollipop were all represented. So if you play close attention to Google news, this post should be a good refresher. And if you’re just a casual Google observer, it’s time to catch up on all you’ve been missing. Table of Contents Nest: Google’s Home Automation Division Android M and Google’s feature experiments OS-wide fingerprint support Selectable app permissions Split-screen apps Google Hangouts, your personal IM assistant Copresence—cross-platform, ultrasonic pairing of nearby devices Person-based reminders Android Apps as a universal binary Android turns into a real car infotainment OS Material Design hits the Web WhatsApp competition, but not Google Hangouts Chromecast 2—new hardware that supports “second screen” interactions Virtual reality with a piece of cardboard Google X Life Sciences—Basically the “Google Healthcare” division Smart contact lenses Baseline Study Continuous monitoring via disease-detecting nanoparticles Liftware, a stabilized spoon for tremor sufferers Calico Google X Self-driving cars Google Glass 2—powered by Intel The Google X Display Division Project Ara—Will the modular phone concept finally become a real product? The Google graveyard Other stuff The world’s most ambitious tech company Nest: Google’s Home Automation Division Nest The Nest Thermostat, Nest’s first consumer product. It lets you control your thermostat remotely and learns your schedule. 4 more images in gallery Home automation was a major expansion point for Google in 2014, and the market feels like the company’s next big ecosystem. At the very beginning of 2014, Google bought Nest Labs , the makers of the Nest Thermostat, for $3.2 billion. Shortly after the acquisition, news came out that Tony Fadell—Nest’s founder and “one of the fathers of the iPod”—was a direct report to Google CEO Larry Page. Only a handful of Google employees deal directly with Page, and they’re usually heads of divisions at Google. So at the time, we posited that Fadell would be running Google’s “smart home” division . Read 118 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google Tracker 2015: Everything we know Google is working on for the new year

The incredible evolution of video game graphics in one image

This picture represents over 30 years of progress in video game graphics. And my, how far we’ve come. On one side, we have Indiana Jones in the video game version of Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600. On the other side, we have Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 on the PS4. We’ll let you guess which side is which. Read more…

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The incredible evolution of video game graphics in one image