Ever had the urge to use a new Wii U controller for gaming and other activities on your PC?  Developer and modder Chris Manning has bridged the gap and created software that makes it possible.

He has enabled the Nintendo’s Wii U big pad controller to communicate with your PC systems and even was kind enough to make the software available to you for download so you can mess around with this tweak as well. According to Manning, he isn’t done there, he is now working to release a new update that will allowing streaming to work and add touch screen support to the Wii U pad.

Chris adds, “Follow the readme.txt closely!  This requires a bit of technical know-how to get working.” Below is a video of the software in action and a link to download your own copy.

Without touch and streaming capabilities, the use potential for this Wii U Controller ‘mod’ is limited at this stage, but there is plenty of future potential here. What do you think?

SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD

[ source ]

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The Apple viewpoint, which has been continued by Tim Cook, is that the “tablet and the PC are different.” Turner’s viewpoint, on the other hand, is that “we think that’s completely incorrect.” We’ve seen the iPad and iPhone develop completely separately from the MacBook and iMac, but you can see what Microsoft is doing with its operating platforms. The Microsoft Surface is a great example of this, but it hasn’t even been released yet. It’s a tablet, but slap on that keyboard and suddenly you’ve got an almost “traditional” Windows 8 PC experience.

That’s why Turner is saying that it’s not a “post PC” era, but rather that it’s a “PC+” era. You take the PC and you add a little more to it; you meld the worlds of the PC and the tablet. “We believe with a single push of a button you can move seamlessly in and out of both worlds,” said Turner. “We believe you can have touch, a pen, a mouse, and a keyboard.”

More than a decade ago, Bill Gates told us that the PC will not die. While smartphones and tablets have certainly changed the way that we interact with the world, desktops and laptops are still very much a part of our everyday lives. With Windows 8 and the greater push for the Metro UI, Microsoft intends on continuing that, but adding a little more; It’s PC+.

[via Verge]

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For the first time ever, you will be able to play Survival mode on mobile devices. The update adds new blocks such as doors, fences, and gates, and tools for various purposes including digging, attacking and shearing.

There will be a bit more violence (which is always fun as long as it’s just in the game, right?) via the introduction of mobs. The first creatures to arrive are sheep and zombies, and you can expect more for the future. You can flee to safety or fight the zombies and hunting for food is also there.

There will also be day and night in Survival mode with the monsters coming at night, and you can also gather resources from nature. But those who want to stick to the Creative mode also have something to cheer about. You will now be able to fly.

The update for Android devices is currently available for download at Android Market. It’s free if you bought the game earlier, otherwise you will have to shell out $6.99. But you can always check out the demo version if you are willing to sacrifice a few things. As for the iOS version, the update is ready to go too but is awaiting the green light from Apple.

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What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “Xerox”, is it copiers by chance? Xerox is certainly a well-known name in the copying/scanning business, although it has done much more than that throughout its rich history including the creation of one of the first GUIs, Xerox Parc Alto.

Today though, Xerox is announcing a new scanner that is nothing short of genius. The Xerox Mobile Scanner is a very slim (2×2.75×11.5-in), portable color scanner that is battery-powered and designed for uploading and sending to the cloud, PC, Mac, Android, iPad, and iPhone.

While I personally am not in need of such a device, I can imagine many business professionals in a variety of fields could find such a scanner invaluable.

Imagine that a client, or perhaps your boss, needs an urgent file that you only have as a paper copy, but you are away from the office and nowhere near your Scanner/Fax machine. With Xerox’s new mobile solution you have access to a portable solution that includes a mobile app for uploading the file and sending it from your phone, tablet, or PC.

The Scanner is set to go on sale very soon through Xerox’s website for $249.99.

The post Xerox’s Portable Scanner Scans To Wi-Fi, Clouds And Androids appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

With all this talk of smartphones and tablets, sometimes we forget that we still need, you know, actual computers. The trouble is that typical desktop computers can suck up quite a bit of power compared to their portable counterparts. Not so with the Trim-Slice from CompuLab.

The Israel-based company has produced what they believe to be its smallest and most energy-efficient model to date. The Trim Slice has a paltry average operational draw of just three watts. It’s like it’s barely there. This lower power consumption is achieved via the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, even though it is providing a full PC experience.

Remember, this is not a netbook or a notebook. There’s no keyboard or display here; it’s just the PC itself. Even so, the fanless computer rocks a 64GB SSD, 1GB DDR2 RAM, wireless-N, expansion slots, USB ports, HDMI-out, and dual head DVI. They’ve even included S/PDIF for 5.1 surround sound.

Given its small stature and low power consumption, the CompuLab Trim-Slice could be a good candidate for those all-in-one PCs (a la iMac). It would even be easy to mount up in your car. CompuLab is marketing it for “power infotainment systems, digital signage and IPTV, or as a gaming device or desktop PC replacement.”

They haven’t indicated a price, but it should be “lower than a tablet.” Look for the Trim-Slice this April.

[GizMag via CompuLab, Fit-PC]

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