Nissan Serena: Automatisiert fahrender Minivan soll im August erschienen

Nissan will seinen ersten Minivan mit teilautomatisierten Fahrfunktionen im August 2016 in Japan auf den Markt bringen. Bis 2020 soll es zehn unterschiedliche Fahrzeuge des japanischen Herstellers mit Funktionen geben, die Propilot genannt werden. (Aut…

Nissan will seinen ersten Minivan mit teilautomatisierten Fahrfunktionen im August 2016 in Japan auf den Markt bringen. Bis 2020 soll es zehn unterschiedliche Fahrzeuge des japanischen Herstellers mit Funktionen geben, die Propilot genannt werden. (Autonomes Fahren, Technologie)

iPad Pro Case: Razer zeigt flache mechanische Switches

Die weltweit ersten mechanischen Low-Profile-Switches sollen es sein: Razers iPad Pro Case ist eine Halterung samt Tastatur für Apples großes Tablet. Der Clou sind die flachen Buttons mit hoher Auslösekraft. (Tastatur, Eingabegerät)

Die weltweit ersten mechanischen Low-Profile-Switches sollen es sein: Razers iPad Pro Case ist eine Halterung samt Tastatur für Apples großes Tablet. Der Clou sind die flachen Buttons mit hoher Auslösekraft. (Tastatur, Eingabegerät)

CodeWeavers demos Windows apps running on a Chromebook (through an Android app)

CodeWeavers demos Windows apps running on a Chromebook (through an Android app)

CrossOver is a utility that allows you to run some Windows programs on a Linux computer. The company behind CrossOver has been working on an Android version that allows you to run Windows software on an Android phone or tablet… but now that Android apps can run on Chromebooks it turns out that installing CrossOver for Android also lets you run Windows programs on a Chromebook.

CodeWeavers hasn’t released their Android app yet, but the company has posted a video showing the Steam game client and Windows game Limbo running on an Acer Chromebook R11.

Continue reading CodeWeavers demos Windows apps running on a Chromebook (through an Android app) at Liliputing.

CodeWeavers demos Windows apps running on a Chromebook (through an Android app)

CrossOver is a utility that allows you to run some Windows programs on a Linux computer. The company behind CrossOver has been working on an Android version that allows you to run Windows software on an Android phone or tablet… but now that Android apps can run on Chromebooks it turns out that installing CrossOver for Android also lets you run Windows programs on a Chromebook.

CodeWeavers hasn’t released their Android app yet, but the company has posted a video showing the Steam game client and Windows game Limbo running on an Acer Chromebook R11.

Continue reading CodeWeavers demos Windows apps running on a Chromebook (through an Android app) at Liliputing.

Shkreli gets a year to figure out how to throw his ex-lawyer under the bus

Former pharmaceutical CEO will face trial June 26 for alleged Ponzi-like scheme.

Martin Shkreli, chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC, exits federal court in New York, US, on Thursday, December 17, 2015. Shkreli was arrested on alleged securities fraud related to Retrophin Inc., a biotech firm he founded in 2011. (credit: Louis Lanzano/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Today, Martin Shkreli, the reviled former pharmaceutical CEO best known for price-gouging a life-saving drug, running an alleged Ponzi-like scheme, and smirking, had the date for his trial on securities fraud charges set to June 26, 2017 in New York.

Shkreli, 33, has been indicted on eight charges in connection with the alleged Ponzi-like scheme, in which he swindled his former pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, out of $11 million in order to cover and hide losses from two hedge funds he managed. He was arrested back in December along with his former counsel, Evan Greebel. Both have pled not guilty to all charges and Shkreli was released on $5 million bail that he posted with an E-trade account worth $45 million at the time.

Since then, the pair have had their court proceedings delayed after Shkreli fired his legal team and federal prosecutors added additional charges.

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Utah lawmakers vote to disable and crash drones near wildfires

The bill is expected to be signed by the state’s governor in coming days.

(credit: Megan Geuss)

On Wednesday, lawmakers in Utah voted to approve a bill that would make it legal for firefighters or law enforcement to shoot down, spoof, or otherwise disable drones found flying over airspace that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) puts under temporary restriction due to wildfire.

The bill was passed after a small drone flying over a fire 300 miles south of Salt Lake City forced firefighters to ground aircraft. Utah’s governor, Gary Herbert, has said that the fire expanded and became more expensive to control after the drone incident. Herbert is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.

Evan Vickers, the Utah senator that co-sponsored the bill, said that firefighters and police would be allowed to shoot a drone down, but he added that they’d probably use technology to jam signals sent to a drone and bring it down that way. (You can see a video of that kind of solution here.) "The redneck in me [says] to shoot the damn thing," the Republican senator said to the Salt Lake Tribune. “But there are much more humane ways to do that,” he added.

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The Chex Quest remaster nobody was asking for is finally coming

The 20-year-old, cereal-minded Doom reskin will receive Unreal Engine 4 conversion.

Chex Quest HD is a real thing. Get ready to shoot lasers at booger-shaped aliens in crisp 1080p before long. (credit: Charles Jacobi)

Even if you're not an avid video gamer, you've probably noticed a significant uptick in "HD remakes" of older, popular video games. Everyone's doing them, and the remaster pool includes everything from redrawn, cartoony games like Capcom's DuckTales to gritty war simulations like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

You might argue that some of these aren't necessary, whether because they're "remasters" of games that are only a few years old or because the source material isn't a cultural cornerstone. And you may be tempted to lump Chex Quest, a 1996 CD-ROM game packed into boxes of cereal in which players must save a race of square-shaped "Chex people" from booger-shaped monsters, into the latter category.

But even that game's coming in HD—and apparently, some people really want it. Chex Quest has enjoyed quite the cult following since its unique mid-'90s launch, perhaps because it was a free, kid-friendly re-skin of Doom and was therefore many kids' first taste of the first-person shooter phenomenon. As such, gaming site Zam reached out to one of the game's co-creators, lead artist Charles Jacobi, to talk about the weird game's genesis and development in light of its 20th anniversary this year—and in the interview, the artist let slip that he's currently working on an HD remaster of the original.

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Congresswoman introduces revenge porn bill, setting max penalty at 5 years

Rep. Jackie Speier: A person’s life can be shattered “with the click of a button.”

(credit: Stanley Sagov)

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco) formally introduced a new bill in Congress on Thursday that would seek to make involuntary, or “revenge” pornography, a federal crime, punishable with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The bill, which is known as the Intimate Privacy Protection Act of 2016, states:

Whoever knowingly uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or electronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to distribute a visual depiction of a person who is identifiable from the image itself or information displayed in connection with the image and who is engaging in sexually explicit conduct, or of the naked genitals or post-pubescent female nipple of a person, with reckless disregard for the person’s lack of consent to the distribution, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

Until now, there has been no such federal bill introduced—but 34 states, including California, have already created similar legislation.

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Sex offender arrested, accused of playing Pokémon Go with kids

Probation agent saw offender playing game with kids outside agency’s office.

(credit: Eduardo Woo)

We've read about all kinds of weird things happening to people playing Pokémon Go on their mobile phones—including players being the victims of muggings, participants being accused of trespassing or getting lost, and even app-related divorce.

The story of an Indiana man, however, takes the cake. The case of 42-year-old Randy Zuick comes in as our top vote for Dumbest Criminal of the Month, and it also gets our top vote for the Strangest Pokémon Go Story we've heard following the mobile app's debut last week.

Zuick is a registered child sex offender. In April he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of fondling a child under 14 and was placed on sex-offender probation for four years. The terms include him not interacting with children, local media reported.

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Standard DualShock controller will work with all PlayStation VR games

You don’t need to invest in PlayStation Move to enjoy console virtual reality.

This is the only controller you'll need for PlayStation VR.

If you're thinking about buying Sony's PlayStation VR when it launches this October, you should know that you don't absolutely need a pair of hand-tracking PlayStation Move controllers to go with the headset. Sony recently confirmed to Eurogamer that "all PlayStation VR titles will support DualShock 4 controllers. However, some game experiences will be enhanced with the use of peripherals such as Move or the recently announced Aim controller."

On the one hand, this makes PlayStation VR that much more accessible to the existing PlayStation 4 audience, which is already guaranteed to have a DualShock 4 controller to use with the $399 headset. VR users will still need to add a $50 PlayStation Camera accessory to enable positional head-tracking (provided they don't already own one), but they won't have to invest in the full $500 bundle that includes two Move controllers.

On the other hand, the DualShock support requirement means PSVR games like Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption, which were originally designed for the HTC Vive's hand-tracking controllers, will likely have to be redesigned to support a standard handheld controller as well. That could lead to some awkward, button-and-joystick control schemes being grafted on to games that were made with true hand-tracking in mind.

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Lenovo launches a Windows 10 smartphone (in Japan)

Lenovo launches a Windows 10 smartphone (in Japan)

There aren’t a lot of companies making Windows smartphones anymore, but the list just got a little longer. Lenovo has introduced its first phone powered by Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile operating system.

The phone will be available through Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank, which helps explain the phone’s name: SoftBank 503LV.

Lenovo and SoftBank are positioning the phone as a business-friendly device thanks to it support for Office Mobile, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Continuum for phone, which allows you to connect a keyboard, mouse and display to run those apps in a desktop view.

Continue reading Lenovo launches a Windows 10 smartphone (in Japan) at Liliputing.

Lenovo launches a Windows 10 smartphone (in Japan)

There aren’t a lot of companies making Windows smartphones anymore, but the list just got a little longer. Lenovo has introduced its first phone powered by Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile operating system.

The phone will be available through Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank, which helps explain the phone’s name: SoftBank 503LV.

Lenovo and SoftBank are positioning the phone as a business-friendly device thanks to it support for Office Mobile, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Continuum for phone, which allows you to connect a keyboard, mouse and display to run those apps in a desktop view.

Continue reading Lenovo launches a Windows 10 smartphone (in Japan) at Liliputing.