Geek News

You ready to give a cute virtual pal some food, bath and TLC? If you miss your Neopets and Tamagotchi days, then keep an eye out for My Tamagotchi Forever , which will be available for Android and iOS devices on March 15th, 2018. Bandai Namco is bringing its beloved virtual pets to smartphones for their 20th birthday, and this time, they're no longer pixelated blobs asking for attention. In this new version, the pets looks more like the villagers in Animal Crossing and is even set in a town with other inhabitants they can make friends with. You'll still have to take care of your pet like old times, though, play mini games with it and evolve it when it's ready to grow. But since this is the age of social media, you'll also be able to share moments and compare your progress with friends. You can also tickle your pets now, thanks to the magic of touchscreen displays. While the app won't be available until March 15th, you can now pre-register on Google Play to be...

Planes that can fold their wings to different angles while in the air have the potential to fly faster than their peers, and NASA has recently made headway into their development. The space agency has conducted a series of test flights proving that it can control the wings it designed to move into any position and that they have aerodynamic benefits. While the technology has existed for a long time, it typically requires the use of heavy hydraulic systems. NASA's version doesn't need that kind of machinery: it relies on the properties of a temperature-activated material called shape memory alloy instead. Upon being heated, the alloy activates a twisting motion in the tubes serving as the wings' actuator, moving the wings' outer portion up to 70 degrees upwards or downwards. The foldable wings will give typical planes like commercial airliners a way to adapt to different flight conditions. They can give pilots more control over their aircraft and could even lead to...

Microsoft's latest update for Office 2016 on Mac adds features that make it a much better tool for collaborative projects. (Or worse, depending on how you prefer attacking group work.) It gives you the ability to work with others in real time à la Google suite -- the apps will even show your who's currently editing via thumbnails in the upper right corner of the window. On Word and PowerPoint, a little flag icon shows you where other people's cursors are, and you'd be able to see their changes as they make it. In case you walk away for a bit, PowerPoint will highlight slides that have been changed, so you can check them when you get back and make sure nobody has ruined somebody else's hard work. To make sure everyone's edits are incorporated into the file, the apps now auto-saves changes. But you can thankfully roll back to an earlier version by accessing history in case somebody makes a huge blunder. In addition, you can now easily access the files you...