Toshiba, VAIO, and Fujitsu decide it’s Morphin’ Time, to combine into single PC Megazord

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It appears the Japanese tech companies Toshiba, VAIO, and Fujitsu have decided that it’s time to ban together to stand up against Lenovo NEC. Bloomberg News is reporting that VAIO is nearing the final stages of a series of negotiations which would merge itself into both Toshiba and Fujitsu. The resulting super-company might just give Lenovo NEC a run for its money.

See also: Toshiba CEO resigns amid $1.2B false accounting scandal8

If you’ve been keeping tabs on these PC rangers, you might remember that Toshiba took a hard hit in December, cutting 7,800 jobs in the fallout of an accounting scandal. Rumors circulated that the company might be withdrawing from the PC making business entirely, but Toshiba is nothing if not scrappy. Last week’s announcement that the company would be sticking to their guns in spite of their struggling electronics division left some scratching their heads, but word of this merger casts their strategy in a new light.

The PC landscape in general is becoming a battleground of titans. Smaller companies are beginning to fuse together to remain competitive with powerhouses HP, Dell, and Lenovo. If Toshiba, VAIO and Fujitsu carry out this merger successfully, they may rise as one of leading competitors in this brutal market. We don’t have any word yet regarding branding or products, and the deal has yet to be officially announced. Hidemi Moue, chief executive officer of Japan Industrial Partners has said that we can expect a formal press release by the end of Q1.

What are your thoughts regarding the combining of these PC giants? Will the resulting merged company be able to find footing on the global playing field? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Next: 6 best Android emulators for PC13

Apple Pay hits China on February 18

After months of rumors, it looks like Apple Pay will finally be launching in China on February 18, according to social media posts from the country’s largest bank, Industrial and Commerical Bank of China (ICBC). Up until now, we’ve been hearing that the mobile payments platform would hit China in “early 2016.” While Apple hasn’t confirmed the launch, China’s state press notes that two other banks would be launching the service on the same date, Reuters reports. Altogether, Apple currently lists 19 banks as its launch partners in the country.

China is a particularly important market for Apple Pay: It’s the largest smartphone market in the world, but it also already has several big mobile payments players, including Tencent’s WeChat Payment. Unlike the US and other countries, where paying for things with your phone is a relatively new concept, Apple’s big problem in China will be proving that its mobile payments platform is actually better than the competition.

Via: Reuters

Doctors reveal they can 3D print body parts and tissue

3D printing isn’t just for toys and models — doctors at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced yesterday that they’ve managed to 3D print “living” tissue and organs that functioned properly when implanted in animals. The team, led by Anthony Atala, is already renowned for printing the building blocks for human bladders. But now they’ve reached another level entirely: They say it’s possible to print structures large and strong enough for humans. They’ve printed muscle structures, bone and ear tissue so far, according to Nature. With a little more work, the technology could revolutionize the way we approach surgical replacements (and finally make plenty of sci-fi biotechnology scenarios a reality).

At the heart of the discovery is the Integrated Organ and Printing System (ITOP), which is unlike any 3D printer we’ve seen so far. It uses “biodegradable, plastic-like material” to form the shape of tissues, as well as water-based ink to hold cells and a series of microchannels to allow oxygen and nutrients to flow through. The idea is to make strong tissue that effectively integrates into animals and humans.

Sure, we’ve been hearing about 3D printed organs for years, but this announcement is notable for several reasons. Atala’s team used the ITOP to print human-sized ears that were implanted under the skin of mice and, over the course of two months, managed to form cartilage and blood vessels. They’ve also seen similar progress when implanting muscle tissue and skull bone in rats. At this rate, it might not be too long before we start seeing human trials.

Source: Nature

The best label maker

By Marisa McClellan

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best things for your home. Read the full article here.

After 25 hours of research (including talking to small-business owners, kitchen managers, professional organizers, and home users) and 15 hours spent testing eight popular models, we’ve determined that the Brother PT-D210 is the best label maker for most people. The easiest model to use, it printed consistently high-quality labels despite being one of the cheapest label makers we tested. Plus, its replacement cartridges are more affordable than those of the competition.

How we tested

Labels from the Epson models we tested weren’t as durable after repeated removals and applications. Note how the corners curl up. Photo: Marisa McClellan

I took a systematic approach to evaluating each label maker. One at a time, I unpacked each label maker and loaded it with batteries and the enclosed label tape. I took note of how easy the battery and tape-cartridge installation was, where the compartments for each were located, and whether any special tools were required. Then, I started using the label maker, noting the ease of typing, the clarity of the screen, the ease of moving from lowercase to uppercase, how smoothly the tape cutter sliced the labels, and generally how the label maker felt in the hand.

Finally, I looked at the labels themselves. While they were all easy to read, legibility isn’t useful if the label itself degrades too easily or proves to be too difficult to apply—and reapply. I covered a glass jar with labels and peeled them off to see how well the adhesive removed. Then I put them back on. After torturing the labels like this for a while, I ran the jar through the dishwasher to see how the labels would stand up to water, heat, and detergent.

Our pick

The Brother keyboard layout is straightforward for anyone who has used a computer or smartphone. Photo: Marisa McClellan

We chose the Brother PT-D210. It’s comfortable in the hands, and it works nicely when positioned on a desk, table, or countertop as well. Among our test group, it has the most intuitive interface, which makes it immediately accessible to someone who has never used a label maker before. It also produces durable, reusable labels with up to two lines of text that can survive a trip through a dishwasher. Our only gripe is that it uses six AAA batteries instead of a rechargeable battery pack and doesn’t come with an AC adapter (though you can purchase one separately). Replacement tape is affordable, especially compared with Epson’s, and widely available in stores and online.

A runner-up that’s better for business

The PT-D400 (right) is significantly larger than the PT-D210 (left), so it’s more at home on a desk than in your hands. But the two have similarly intuitive keyboard layouts. Photo: Marisa McClellan

If you’re planning on giving your label maker heavy use, or if you want one for a busy office environment, consider upgrading to the Brother PT-D400AD instead. It does everything the PT-D210 does and has the same easy-to-use keyboard layout, but it adds the ability to print barcodes. It accepts tape up to ¾ inch and can print up to seven lines of text per label instead of the PT-D210’s two lines. It also comes with an AC adapter, which helps to offset its higher price.

For crafters

The slimmer Epson LW-400 (left) is more comfortable to hold than the older LW-300 (right). Photo: Marisa McClellan

Overall, Brother label makers are better for most people because the replacement cartridges are more affordable and the keyboard layouts are more intuitive. But if crafting is your primary goal, Epson’s label options come in a wider variety of media, including iron-on fabric versions that have fewer complaints of washing off than Brother’s, as well as ribbons for customized gift wrapping or other projects. However, Epson labels are a bit more expensive per foot. We considered Epson’s LW-400 and LW-300 label makers, but we prefer the LW-400 because of its slimmer, more ergonomic body and its ability to print barcodes.

Wrapping it up

After 40 hours of research and testing, we think the Brother PT-D210 is the best label maker for most people. Despite being one of the cheapest models we tested, it printed consistently high-quality labels and was the easiest to use. It also has more-affordable replacement cartridges than the competition.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

There’s a battle brewing over one-wheeled skateboards

At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, US Marshals raided and shut down a booth hawking the Trotter, a one-wheeled electric skateboard. Officials were told that the device violated patents owned by Future Motion, makers of the rival OneWheel self-balancing board. Bloomberg, however, is reporting that Future Motion has now withdrawn its infringement lawsuit against the Trotter. It’s suggested that the company mislead the courts about the strength of its patents, tricking authorities into taking out a legitimate rival.

According to the newswire, the Trotter’s maker is looking for a cash settlement to recoup its losses from the CES raid. The firm wants $100,000 to cover the loss of business and reputation after it was publicly humiliated at the trade show. In addition, the company is seeking a substantial quantity of legal fees that it’s had to incur in order to fight the initial action. Future Motion’s representatives told Bloomberg that its case is legitimate, but it simply doesn’t have the cash to sustain a war of attrition in the patent courts.

When you’ve been to a few trade shows, you’ll quite frequently spot booths getting raided by authorities for various infringement actions. Robotic vacuum cleaners that are suspiciously close to iRobot’s products are a common target, as are companies looking to clone Apple devices. There are plenty of questions left unanswered about what’s going to happen now — but this could have ramifications beyond a couple of companies trying to sell electric skateboards.

Update: Future Motion and its CEO, Kyle Doerkson, responded to our request for comment with the following statements.

Doerkson:

“We would much rather be innovating than litigating. Our California-based team of designers and engineers are focused on delivering great products and experiences. However, we will continue to fully defend our innovations through our intellectual property rights in ways that make strategic sense for our company.”

Future Motion:

“After considering the economics of the litigation, Future Motion has voluntarily dismissed its patent infringement lawsuit against Changzhou First International Trading Co. Ltd. (“CZ-First”). Specifically, in view of apparently minimal U.S. sales of the accused CZ-First product, Future Motion determined that the likely costs of continuing litigation would outweigh the potential benefits, and dismissed the action without prejudice. Future Motion will continue to monitor competing products and to enforce its intellectual property rights when necessary.”

Source: Bloomberg

Detailed Mars maps help you plan the hike of your dreams

With the help of NASA’s Curiosity rover, we’ve seen a lot more of Mars than we ever anticipated — especially the Red Planet’s sand dunes. But the exact topography of the planet remains a mystery to anyone not carefully studying the space agency’s data. Britain’s Ordnance Survey (OS) agency wants to change that, so it used its mapping expertise to create new charts detailing Mars’ terrain.

The two maps, which are hosted on the agency’s Flickr account, cover around 10 million square kilometers (3.8 million square miles). That’s about 7 percent of Mars’ surface. On them, you can see the landing sites of the Mars Pathfinder in the Acidalia Planitia region and the Opportunity rover, which is located west of Mark Watney’s destination in The Martian: the Schiaparelli crater.

For over 200 years, Ordnance Survey has been known for its highly-detailed paper maps of the UK, which have been traditionally used by hikers and explorers. However, Cartographer Chris Wesson created these one-off Martian maps following a request from planetary scientist Dr Peter Grindrod. It’s hoped that the map will be used to help plan the landing of the ESA’s ExoMars rover in 2019.

Via: Huffington Post, OS Blog

Source: Ordnance Survey (Flickr)

Grammycam footage during last night’s show was pretty terrible

It seemed like a solid idea. GoPro cameras in the base of those gold Grammy award statues were meant to capture a unique perspective of the music industry’s annual party. However, the results were really pretty awful. Those so-called Grammycams performed well, offering views from the stage as winners accepted awards and spouted thank yous to the crowd. Unfortunately, most of the sights were awkward angles of musicians and a lot of closeups of hands.

Based on the coverage and archived clips, it was almost as if the nominees weren’t told about the tech. Taylor Swift seemed to notice the tiny camera capturing her acceptance speech, while others either blocked the lens or kept it angled towards themselves for rather unflattering views. Perhaps next year the Grammy Awards producers will figure out a way to better use the setup, but for now, you can relive some awkward angles from last night down before.

Via: PetaPixel

Source: Grammys (YouTube)

Three new ‘Fallout 4’ DLCs are coming this spring

Bethesda announced three upcoming add-on packs to its smash-hit Fallout 4 on Tuesday. Players will soon be able to access three DLCs dubbed Automatron, Wasteland Workshop and Far Harbor.

Automatron, dropping in March for $10, will pit players against a horde of robots unleashed by the evil Mechanist. With parts gathered from destroying these robots, players will be able to build and customize their own mechanical companions.

The $5 Wasteland Workshop, which is being released in April, will enable players to design and set cages to capture live creatures which can then be pitted against each other in post-apocalyptic bloodsports. The Workshop also includes a number of new design elements for customizing your settlement.

And for $25, players will be able to download the Far Harbor DLC in May. Set sail for a mysterious island off the coast of Maine in search of a missing woman and a hidden colony of Synths on behalf of the Valentine Detective Agency.

Take note, however, that the price of the season pass is going to increase on March 1st from the current price of $30 up to $50. That said, if you’ve already purchased your season pass, nothing changes. You’ll get every 2016 DLC for the $30 you already paid for it. So if you’re waffling over whether or not to get one, you’d better make up your mind by the end of February.

Source: Bethesda

Here Maps for iOS offers easy access to detailed place info

Here Maps provides an alternative to Apple and Google navigation apps, and the iOS version of the software just got a lot more useful. First, tapping on a place icon on a map will bring up detailed information like hours, contact details and more. It’s similar to what what you’d see in Google’s app. There’s also a new shortcut tool that offers quick access to Here Maps features. If you tap and hold on any place, options for directions, navigation, sharing the destination and saving it for later all pop up.

When you input your home address, there’s a handy button in the top right corner to get you back with ease. In other words, having Here navigate you back to your humble abode is as simple as a tap. The app now plays nice with 3D Touch too, which puts those directions back home a long press away with the Here Maps icon on your home screen. If you’re looking to give it a go, the new version of the app is available now.

Source: Here Maps

Where the hell is ‘Kentucky Route Zero?’

There’s an important question at the heart of Kentucky Route Zero. As Conway and his dog drive through dusty, humid towns collecting strange friends and glowing-yellow leg bones, a single question haunts their tire tracks: Where the hell is Kentucky Route Zero? Not in geographic terms — Conway does eventually find the highway — but on a grand scale, where is it actually located? On another plane? In another galaxy? When you’re on Route Zero, where are you, really?

The game is supposed to comprise five acts, but it’s been nearly two years since the third installment dropped. Originally, developer Cardboard Computer pledged to launch one new act every three months, with the final episode scheduled to land in October 2014. So, fans are asking the question again, this time literally: Where the hell is Kentucky Route Zero — specifically, its fourth act?

“It’s so close. Oh my god, it’s so close.”

That’s Jake Elliott, one-half of Cardboard Computer alongside fellow developer Tamas Kemenczy; musician Ben Babbitt composes the game’s haunting score. Elliott has a rough idea of when the fourth act will go live, but that timing is a secret for now. A lot about the fourth act is shrouded in mystery, including why it’s taken so long to develop. Cardboard Computer has been quietly working away on the episode for 21 months, but the team hasn’t divulged much about its content, leaving fans to wonder and speculate.

The secrecy isn’t because Elliott is afraid to put his work out there — he’s a seasoned artist and a high-profile independent game developer. Shyness isn’t his issue. Spoilers are.

“I think a lot of it is just wanting to — I don’t know. You can hear I’m kind of struggling to talk about this stuff now without spoiling anything,” Elliott says. “I don’t want to be too precious about it, that it’s like this paper flower that’s going to wilt if I tell you too much about it…. It’s something we feel protective of, people’s first experience with it.”

Elliott carefully drops slivers of information about the fourth act: It takes place in entirely new settings with a lot of new characters, and it has fresh mechanics. These mechanics aren’t superficial spectacles, either. Think back to the end of Act 3 (take your time; it’s been a while): Conway and friends find a mold-powered supercomputer called Xanadu that basically functions as a separate video game within Kentucky Route Zero itself. That’s one example of what Elliott means when he talks about “new mechanics.”

The new settings take up a lot of time, too. In the previous three episodes, Cardboard Computer was able to re-use some environments as players traveled among known locations. Not so in Act 4.

And then there’s the technical side of things. To make these new features function properly, Elliott and Kemenczy had to overhaul the game’s dialogue and movement systems. Elliott re-wrote the dialogue engine — “It looks the same and it hopefully feels the same. Hopefully it feels a little bit better,” he says — and Kemenczy created a new “blocking manager” that allows him to get more emotions and gestures out of the characters.

“And there’s a lot of stuff that I think will be obvious when you play it, these new experimental things that we don’t want to get into until it’s out,” Elliot says.

“Experimental” is how Cardboard Computer rolls, and it’s another factor in Act 4’s extreme delay. Elliott and Kemenczy have released three free “interludes” between Kentucky Route Zero’s acts, and they’ve grown exponentially more intricate as the years have dragged on.

The first one, Limits and Demonstrations, is a short, interactive art exhibit that plays out like a traditional point-and-click adventure game. It’s simple, yet it expands Kentucky Route Zero’s world and teases interactions in Act 2. Though when it was conceived, the interlude’s narrative potential was an afterthought. Some people were having problems running the game, and each work of art in Limits and Demonstrations actually tests out different aspects of players’ graphics cards.

“When we started selling episode one, we had no idea of having these interludes between them,” Elliott says.

Technical issues aside, the team enjoyed the world-building aspect of that first interlude, and they decided to continue churning them out between episodes. The second interlude, The Entertainment, is a stage play within the game world, “written” by a fictional character. It’s set in a dimly lit bar, and players inhabit a silent patron alone at a table; they’re able to watch the play, stare at the audience and interact with bits of the set to reveal stage notes and other small goodies. But that’s not experimental enough for Cardboard Computer — the script of the fictional play The Entertainment is available for purchase in physical form. Yes, under the name of a fictional author and with a fake ISBN.

The most recent interlude, Here and There Along the Echo, is Cardboard Computer’s most ambitious by far. Its on-screen component features a telephone that calls just one number: An audio guide to the Echo River and its surrounding attractions (voiced by Kentucky-born musician and actor Will Oldham). But, as demonstrated by The Entertainment’s real-life script, Elliott and Kemenczy can’t be contained by digital walls. Kemenczy also got his hands on a few dozen old phones and dug around in their circuitry so they could only “call” the Echo River number. Then, Cardboard Computer auctioned some of them off.

“You could just plug it into a wall and have a physical version of this piece,” Elliott says. “It was a ton of work for him, designing that circuit but then also assembling it.”

Kemenczy and Elliott wanted to sell the phones on a rolling basis leading up to the release of Act 4. They ended up selling three — one on eBay under a fictional profile; one via a live, 90s-style home-shopping sale; and one at a physical auction in Chicago’s Nightingale cinema. For the eBay sale, Elliott and Kemenczy added a flowery description of the Pink Western Electric model 2500 that offered hints into the game world, plus they made a video showing off the phone in glorious detail. For the home-shopping film, Kemenczy physically modified a digital camera to shoot in an authentically grainy, VHS style. At the live auction, they brought in a real auctioneer and the event was written up by a handful of local outlets.

Each of the phones sold for around $300.

“I think the reason we felt compelled to do all that weird, extra stuff was just a basic discomfort with the idea of selling art,” Elliott says. “We had to make it into some kind of theater or something so that people would get something out of it even if they weren’t paying for it. I think the interludes kind of work that way in general, it’s like half of the game, basically, is free.”

Elliott and Kemenczy wanted to sell more phones, but the auctions were cutting into development time on the actual game. They’ve paused the project for now, though Elliott hopes to return to it in the future.

Overall, Elliott doesn’t sound worried about Act 4’s two-year development schedule. He rides molasses waves of inspiration that have taken Kentucky Route Zero to haunted mines, whiskey factories staffed by skeletons and, yes, even eBay.

“We definitely err on the side of following our intuition and going wherever we want to go,” Elliott says. They do edit themselves; they’ve abandoned some features throughout development, but they don’t scrap anything because it might take too long to implement, Elliott says. “That doesn’t really happen very much. I don’t know — maybe it should, but it doesn’t.”

pic.twitter.com/0luA2JnLte

— cardboard computer (@cardboardcompy) February 7, 2016

Kentucky Route Zero and its interludes blur the lines between reality and fantasy, virtual worlds and physical spaces. Act 4 is poised to do the same, but on an even larger scale. Ben Babbitt’s music, at least, is more ambitious than ever before. He records his own foley sounds and uses actual instruments, rather than electronic facsimiles, to craft the game’s mood. The music in Act 4 includes a lap steel guitar and a theremin, two instruments that Babbitt didn’t know how to play before development started.

“The theremin is really hard to play,” Elliott says. “I was surprised that he decided to use a real theremin instead of using a computer, but I’m sure it will be worth it.”

Elliott plans on teasing Act 4 as well as he can, without spoiling anything, of course. The Cardboard Computer Twitter account recently posted images from the new installment; no text, just the pictures. That kind of subtlety feels right to Elliott. The day Act 4 is finally ready for public consumption, it’ll probably just pop up online, skipping the release-date announcement system entirely.

“It’s hard, having been close to it for so long, this time there’s some anxiety about whether it’s going to land the way that we hope it will,” Elliott says. “That anxiety has had a lot more time to build than it had with the other ones.”

We know, Elliott. We know.