How to play PS4 on PC: How to use PS4 Remote Play on PC or Mac

The PlayStation 4 is, arguably, the most popular gaming platform available at the moment, but up until now it has lacked a something that its rivals, namely Xbox, feature. A recent addition to the Xbox One feature list is the ability to play your Xbox One games via your PC in Windows 10, thanks to the newly updated Xbox app. And as of 6 April, the Sony equivalent is here for PS4 thanks to a new update. Here, we show you how to set up and install Remote PC Play to play your PS4 games on your PC. Read next: Best PS4 games of 2016 and How to use a PS4 controller on PC

• Download and install the official Remote Play app for PC or Mac

• Ensure your PlayStation 4 is runnng software v3.50 via Settings, System Software Update

• Open PC Remote Play and connect your DualShock 4 controller

• Log into your PSN account

• Click Manually connect if your PS4 isn’t automatically found

How to play PS4 on PC or Mac: PC & Mac Remote Play available now

Sony first dropped the news that PS4 users will be able to access Remote Play via their PC or Mac a little over a month ago, although details were scarce. It wouldn’t be available to public beta testers; all we knew is that it’d be coming as part of the PlayStation 4 3.50 system software update which also had no real release date. Fast forward to 5 April and Sony announced via the PlayStation blog that the software update would be available to users the very next day and includes the highly anticipated PC & Mac Remote Play support.

The PlayStation 4 3.50 update is now readily available, and once the update has hit your console you’ll be able to start using Remote Play. To do so, you’ll need to head over to the official Remote Play site and download the application to your PC or Mac, and follow our instructions below.

How to play PS4 on a PC or Mac: System Requirements

Your PC or Mac has to be running one of the following operating systems:

• Windows 8.1
• Windows 10 or later
• OS X 10.10
• OS X 10.11

You’ll be able to select from the following resolution and frame rate options, depending on your Internet connection – for 720p/60fps, a minimum internet connection of 5Mb is required.

• Resolution options: 360p, 540p, 720p
• Default resolution – 540p
• Frame rate: Standard (30fps), High (60fps)
• Default frame rate – Standard (30fps)

You’ll also be able to use the DualShock 4 controller, though this will have to be connected to your PC or Mac via micro USB.

How to play PS4 on a PC or Mac

Step 1) Download and install PC/Mac client. The first step in our how-to is to download the official Remote Play app for PC or Mac – this can be downloaded from here. Once you’ve downloaded the installer, simply install the app by following the on-screen instructions.

Step 2) Update your PS4 software to 3.50 if you haven’t already. Depending on your PlayStation 4 settings, you should be prompted to download and install the update automatically. However, if this hasn’t happened, don’t fear – you can also go to Settings > System Software Update to manually trigger the update.

Step 3) Open PC Remote Play app and connect your DualShock 4 controller. Even though most PCs and Macs offer Bluetooth support, Sony has designed the Remote Play app to only work with wired connections. This means you’ll have to plug your PS4 controller into your PC/Mac via a USB cable, then click “Start”.

Step 4) Log in to your PSN account. This should be the same as the main account you use on your PlayStation 4.

Step 5a) App will automatically search for your PS4. The search may take a few minutes but if it doesn’t show up after an extended period of time, it has to be done manually. Sony claims that the search won’t find your PlayStation 4 via the Internet if it isn’t registered as your Primary PS4, or if it’s completely powered off (opposed to being in Rest Mode where it’s able to remotely turn it on).

Step 5b) If it isn’t found, click Manually Connect. It’s worth noting that manually connecting to your PS4 requires both the PS4 and PC/Mac to be on the same network. On your PS4, head to Settings > Remote Play Connection Settings > Add device and enter the number provided on the Remote Play app.

Step 6 – Get ready to game. If all goes well, your PC should then connect to your PS4 and you can start gaming away. If you want to tweak your connection settings, you must first disconnect from Remote Play by turning off your PS4 or closing the Remote Play app. Before clicking “Start” to connect to your PS4, click Settings and tweak the Resolution/Framerate.

DIY Privacy Display – Recycle your monitors in a badass way

How do I stop videos from playing automatically in my News Feed.

You can turn Facebook’s video auto-play settings on or off. To stop videos from playing automatically on your computer:

1. From the top right of Facebook, click and select Settings
2. Click Videos in the left menu
3. Click the dropdown menu next to Auto-play Videos and select Off

Learn how to turn off auto-play videos on your mobile phone.

Turn your home into a horror game in Night Terrors

A totally new concept in augmented reality and gaming is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo. Night Terrors is an immersive experience that turns your home or any other environment into a “terrifying hellscape.” The developers’ aim is to “create the scariest game ever made,” and the trailers they have released make it look truly terrifying. See the first trailer below, or click this link if it fails to load.

The gameplay happens after dark in your home or other dark environment, and the app takes full advantage of every piece of technology in your iPhone to make your environment a part of the game. Your accelerometer, camera, microphone, LED, gyroscope, and GPS provide all of the data to build the game’s map and populate it with horrifying monsters.

Night Terrors is a survival game with two goals: save the girl and survive. The game controls what you see and hear, with your iPhone’s LED flash providing all the light you get. The camera and microphone feeds get analyzed and processed in real time, and photorealistic elements are added to provide the terrifying elements of the game.

The developers have ditched the idea of using CGI for the graphics, choosing practical effects instead so they can more realistically blend the elements together and match the lighting in the player’s environment. By controlling your iPhone’s LED flash, the lighting conditions of both the photorealistic elements and your environment can be manipulated to provide you with a truly frightening experience.

Night Terrors has become a viral hit, but the developers still have not met their funding goal of $70,000. With just six days left in the campaign, it seems unlikely that the goal will be met. However, since Night Terrors is using Indiegogo’s Flexible Funding model, the developers will still receive all of the funds raised and will hopefully be able to make the augmented reality game come to life on your iPhone or iPad.

You can view the latest trailer for the game below. If the video fails to load, just click this link.

Reserve your free copy of Windows 10

Microsoft announced that it will be launching Windows 10 on July 29th, encouraging Windows 7 and 8.1 users to reserve their free upgrade with a notification in their task bar. However, while the company has been busy highlighting all the shiny new features in the upcoming OS, it’s been a bit quieter when it comes to spelling out the limitations — including making updates automatic for Windows 10 Home users.

Say goodbye to hearts and desktop gadgets

Firstly there are the software losses. Most of these will only affect a small number of users, but upgrading will mean saying goodbye to Windows Media Center, the card game Hearts, and Windows 7’s desktop gadgets. Anyone in the habit of using floppy disks on Windows will also have to install new drivers, and Microsoft warns that watching DVDs will also require “separate playback software.” Microsoft manager Gabriel Aul has said on Twitter that a DVD option for Windows 10 is coming “later this year,” but early upgraders can always download VLC instead.

In addition to the software losses, there are also a number of limitations for some of Windows 10’s most exciting features. Cortana will only be available in the US, UK, China, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain at launch, while Windows Hello (which offers support for various biometric passwords) will need an infrared camera for facial recognition, or a supported fingerprint reader. The Xbox Music and Xbox Video streaming apps will also be constrained by the usual, complex web of region-based licenses.

More annoyingly, perhaps, Microsoft has also changed how updates will work with Windows 10. Although the Pro and Enterprise editions will both be able to defer updates, Windows 10 Home users will not have the option. Updates will instead be downloaded and installed automatically as soon as they’re available. System requirements for the new OS have also been detailed, with PCs and tablets needing to pass a fairly low bar: a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a display resolution of at least 1,024 x 600 are required. These specs are a bit higher for the 64-bit version of Windows 10 but for these details and more, you can check out Microsoft’s full specs page.

Specifications

These are for a pre-released version of Windows 10 and are subject to change.

System requirements

If you want to upgrade to Windows 10 on your PC or tablet, here’s what it takes.

• Latest OS: Make sure you are running the latest version either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
  • Don’t know which version you are running? Check here to find out.
  • Need to download the latest version? Click here for Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display: 1024×600

Here’s how:

• 1. Reserve

  You can reserve your free upgrade in the Get Windows 10 App. Once you reserve, Windows 10 will download when available, and you can cancel your reservation at any time.*

  • Click on the small Windows icon found at the right end of the taskbar. If you don’t see it, visit our Q&A page for more info.
    
  • Click “Reserve your free upgrade” in the app window.
  • Enter your email if you want a confirmation of this reservation.
  • All set. There’s no obligation and you can cancel your reservation at any time.

• 2. Relax

  You’ll get a notification when your upgrade is ready later this year. This lets you schedule the installation for a time that’s convenient.

• 3. Enjoy

  After it’s installed, Windows 10 is yours to love.

Microsoft is finally leading the way in mobile.

Microsoft smartly waited until the end of its excruciatingly long keynote to give us a second look at the HoloLens, the company’s forward-looking take on virtual reality. Before a packed crowd of developers and press, the device’s architect, Alex Kipman, showed how the HoloLens could litter a wall with virtual displays and create detailed objects — like a Tyrannosaurus’ skull — that weren’t really there.

HoloLens is futuristic, potentially game-changing and incredibly cool. It’s also a longterm play from Microsoft, and we won’t know how big a deal it will be for a while. Even if it somehow ships this year, it’ll take a while for developers to build experiences for it, and for users to truly “get” it.

For something shorter term that might move the needle for Microsoft, you’d need to rewind to just five minutes before the HoloLens discussion, when Corporate Vice President of Operating Systems Joe Belfiore demonstrated how Continuum — the ability for Windows 10 to adapt to various form factors — will work on Windows phones.

There weren’t any holograms, but the demo garnered its share of ooh’s and aah’s. Belfiore showed a Windows phone plugged into a larger tablet display via HDMI. Initially the screen just showed the phone’s display in a smaller window on the right side of the display. Nothing new there — Samsung has done something similar for a while.

Things got interesting when Belfiore fired up PowerPoint. Since the app is the same as the one on Windows tablets, the entire user interface changed to fill the screen. This was more than just stretching pixels — entire menus and navigation transformed for the larger canvas. A tablet app appeared before our eyes.

The concept reminded me of what Motorola tried to do with the Atrix a few years back, where the phone powered a laptop-like experience if you had the right accessory. But Android was comparatively primitive, and Motorola didn’t have an ecosystem to speak of. The experience wasn’t great.

With Windows 10 and its “Universal” apps, Microsoft is delivering far more of the promise of that idea: Continuum essentially makes the phone your PC, able to turn a screen — any screen — into a tailored user experience.

Hardware will be a limitation. Continuum will work in this way only on upcoming Windows phones; the ones out now — even the ones that are supposedly Windows 10 upgradeable — won’t be able to do this trick, since it requires new processor tech Microsoft is developing with Qualcomm.

A bigger limitation is that Windows is, to many, a mere afterthought as a mobile platform. Today’s news that Microsoft is opening up its platform for Android and even iOS developers is essentially an admission that it can’t make it in mobile, at least on its own.

The move is also unlikely to make much difference at this point, as developers will still be reluctant to support Windows phone, no matter how easy it is to port apps to the platform. Converting an app for a new OS is more than just adapting code; there are marketing and branding considerations. In a world where users control your storefront, no developer can afford to simply throw together a new version and see what happens.

That’s too bad, because Microsoft finally has one of the most interesting ideas in mobile. Today, if you want to get real work done, you put down your phone and fire up a laptop. With Windows 10, those devices can essentially be one in the same. But it won’t make any difference if all you get out of it is better PowerPoint.

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Facebook Messenger Launches Free VOIP Video Calls Over Cellular And Wi-Fi

 

It’s not polite to call someone out of the blue anymore. Best to text them first. That’s why Facebook thinks video calling will live naturally inside Messenger. Today, Messenger is launching free VOIP video calling over cellular and wifi connections on iOS and Android in the U.S., Canada, UK, and 15 other countries.

Facebook’s goal is to connect people face to face no matter where they are or what mobile connection they have. With Messenger, someone on a new iPhone with strong LTE in San Francisco could video chat with someone on a low-end Android with a few bars of 3G in Nigeria.

Here’s a quick video from Facebook showing Messenger video calls in action:

Facebook first introduced desktop video calling in partnership with Skype in 2011, but eventually built its own video call infrastructure. Bringing it to mobile could Messenger a serious competitor to iOS-only FaceTime, clunky Skype, and less-ubiquitous Google Hangouts.

With 600 million Messenger users and 1.44 billion on Facebook, the new VOIP video feature has a massive built-in audience. Mark Zuckerberg said on last week’s Facebook earnings call that Messenger already accounts for 10% of global mobile VOIP calls. He believes free, high audio quality VOIP will displace traditional phone calling, and video calling could accelerate that.

Messenger has no plans to charge for audio or video calling. Instead, it knows more messaging drives lock in with Facebook’s News Feed where it makes tons of money from ads. Facebook Messenger’s Head Of Product Stan Chudnovsky who led the video calling feature tells me, “Whatever’s good for Messenger is good for Facebook as a company.”

Messenger Face-To-FaceTime

Video calling in Messenger will become available today for iOS and Android users in Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Uruguay. More regions will be added in the coming months.

If you have access, you’ll see the video camera icon in the top right corner when you’re having a Messenger chat with a friend who can be called. Tapping it starts a video call, which opens when the recipient accepts. Cameras start in selfie mode but you can toggle to the backside camera to show a friend what you’re doing.

Messenger will adjust the quality of the call according to your connection. The demo I saw showed just a hint of pixelation and strong frame rate with 2 bars of LTE service in SF. It’s easy to switch to just VOIP audio, and Facebook will gracefully notify you if the connection weakens to where video won’t work. It’s all free on Facebook’s side, and users will only be charged for data use by their mobile operator, which they can avoid by using Wi-Fi.

One smart thing Messenger allows is for one person to turn off their video feed to make the other person’s high quality. This way if you’re sitting at home and a friend is on a mountain in Norway, you can give them the extra bandwidth because what matters is seeing their scenery, not them seeing your bedroom.

This is v1, though, and Chudnovsky said the Messenger team was working on a bunch of secondary features I asked about, including group video calling and video stabilization. “Group video calling is definitely a use case that a lot of our people might be interested in at some point…[and] it would be a big deal if the whole [shakes hand to simulate lack of video stabilization] thing goes away.” Those could help Messenger compete with Google’s Hangouts, which is filled with bells and whistles.

A big question raised by the launch is whether this could pave the way for Facebook to enter the mobile livestreaming market, where Meerkat and Twitter’s Periscope are making waves. “We’re building infrastructure that will allow us to do anything we want with video” Chudnovsky explains. Still he wouldn’t say if Facebook’s moving in the livestreaming direction. “We’re not thinking about what our second, third, fourth, and fifth steps will. We’re goingto look at the data and decide what we need to do. there’s are 20 different ways we can take it.”

Perhaps the most glaring omission for now is that mobile Messenger users can’t video call with desktop Facebook users, but Chudnovsky says that should be patched relatively soon. On mobile, he thinks video calling in Messenger will be much more convenient than having to either video call someone suddenly, or switch apps. “You don’t have to close it, go to another app, launch that app, connect with them in that other app, and then finally starting the call with brain damage from how you’re actually doing it.”

Software Is Eating Phones…And Data Plans

Chudnovsky knew Facebook needed to build mobile video calling after doing feedback sessions about Messenger’s audio calling feature. “Unprompted, a lot of people said ‘we’d like to have a face-to-face conversation over Messenger” he tells me.

Building video into a chat app means these conversations can be emergent, spontaneous experiences, rather than scheduled occurrences. “Everything starts from a text conversation these days” Chudnovsky explains. “I’m not going to call you any more. I’m going to text you and ask if you have three minutes for a phone call.” Instead they can text in Messenger, and switch to video with one tap.

This will also let Facebook promote Messenger video calling without being too annoying. For example, Chudnovsky imagines two people Messenger text chatting for hours, one in a hotel room in NY, another in a room in Paris, both on Wi-Fi. Messenger could notify them that they could turn their chat into a video call for free. It will let them go out and find the feature if they’re on on a cellular connection, but will remind them they could have a more vivid connection for free when possible.

This is all part of Facebook’s philosophy that its products have to be good enough to grow without massive cross-promotional help. It’s often let products like Facebook Deals or Home die rather than pester its nearly one and a half billion people to use them. “It’s survival of the fittest inside the company. Only products and features people actually want survive and that’s how the product keeps getting better and better” Chudnovsky reveals. Hocking something that doesn’t work? “That’s not our mojo”, he says.

Protecting people from their own data usage will be important for the feature. Though Facebook offers a way to disable auto-play of News Feed videos when you’re not on Wi-Fi to save people’s data plans, some users who didn’t still felt burned when they saw their bills.

The Messenger team has done extensive work to try to crunch the data needed for video calling as small as possible. When I asked how Messenger compares to Skype or Hangouts’ data usage, Chudnovsky wouldn’t be specific but said “We’ve been doing a lot of benchmarking and we’re very happy. Very happy.”

Overall, Messenger’s voice and video quality were strong despite an imperfect mobile connection. And since everyone you know is probably already on Facebook and connected to you, and you can easily find new contacts there, Messenger could take the hassle out of simulating a face-to-face conversation. Chudnovsky concludes, “This is what Facebook is supped to be doing, which is removing friction from everything.”

New Smart Drone Breaks $1K Barrier

A new aerial drone from 3D Robotics packs two computers and an array of powerful features for US$999.

Solo’s two computers — one on the craft and one in the controller — have enabled it to make some radical breakthroughs in autonomous flight and camera control, according to 3DR.

Built on 1-GHz Cortex A9 ARM chips running Linux, the computers allow operators to preprogram the drone’s flight path so they can concentrate on shooting video or stills from the unmanned aircraft system and not be distracted by piloting tasks.

Solo is the first drone to support full control of GoPro cameras and deliver live-streaming HD video to mobile devices or through its controller’s HDMI port, 3DR said. Video can be delivered to the devices from up to half a mile from the point of takeoff.

“The integration with GoPro is genius, because they’re almost the de facto standard for cameras on these kinds of devices,” said Matt Waite, founder of the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

“Because of the bang for your buck that you get with GoPros, they’re everywhere,” he told TechNewsWorld. “For a significant number of people buying these devices, they’re not going to need to buy a GoPro because they already have one.”

Gimbal Optional

To get maximum performance from a flying GoPro, 3DR also is offering the optional Solo Gimbal ($399). The gimbal, which is used to mount and stabilize a camera on the drone, gives an operator the ability to start and stop recording from the GoPro while in flight — which reduces the amount of extraneous footage captured during a shooting session.

Combined with 3DR’s mobile app or buttons on the drone’s controller, the gimbal lets an operator snap stills and change settings, such as FOV, FPS and exposure compensation.

In addition, Solo’s Gimbal can stabilize a camera to a tenth of a degree in pointing accuracy. It also can provide extra power for a GoPro and, combined with Solo’s controller, create Smart Shots, allowing the drone’s computer to take control of the gimbal for capturing what it determines to be the perfect shot.

Although Solo is priced at $999, when you add the price of the gimbal and a camera to the package, the total cost would be in the $1,600 ballpark.

“It’s surprising to me that the gimbal costs so much and is not included in the main package,” said Andrew Amato, editor-in-chief and cofounder of Dronelife.com.

“They did a really good job of keeping the price of the unit itself at $1,000,” he told TechNewsWorld, “but I thought at least the gimbal would be included in the $1,000.”

Smart Battery

For hands-off operators, Solo offers auto takeoff, landing and return home. It also has an e-brake feature for stopping the craft in mid-air.

The smarts in the drone extend to its battery. It not only keeps tabs on its power level, but also tracks the drone’s distance from home base and warns the operator when it’s time to return. 3DR estimates Solo’s battery life to be 25 minutes without a payload and 20 minutes with one.

For Solo buyers with an eye to the future, the drone has a gimbal bay so other companies can make compatible gimbals, an accessory bay for additions such as a ballistic parachute system and LED lighting systems, and easy-to-swap motor pods for changing propulsion systems. What’s more, software for the system can be upgraded wirelessly.

“This is a cool, sleek well-finished product that’s going to appeal to a lot of people,” said Mike Fortin, president of CineDrones.

However, commercial users may be looking for a little more that Solo can deliver.

“At the end of the day, it’s still only flying a GoPro,” Fortin told TechNewsWorld. “Commercial users want something that can fly a camera that is better than what your average GoPro can put out.”

Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

The Windows USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7/8 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 or Windows 8 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

The ISO file contains all the Windows installation files combined into a single uncompressed file. When you download the ISO file, you need to copy it to some medium in order to install Windows. This tool allows you to create a copy of the ISO file to a USB flash drive or a DVD. To install Windows from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

Note: You cannot install Windows from the ISO file until you copy it to a USB flash drive or DVD with the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and install from there.

The copy of the ISO file that the Windows USB/DVD Download tool creates is bootable. Bootable media allows you to install Windows 7 without having to first run an existing operating system on your machine. If you change the boot order of drives in your computer’s BIOS, you can run the Windows 7 installation directly from your USB flash drive or DVD when you turn on your computer. Please see the documentation for your computer for information on how to change the BIOS boot order of drives.

Download

For Windows XP Users

The following applications must be installed prior to installing the tool:

•Microsoft .NET Framework v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en.
•Microsoft Image Mastering API v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B5F726F1-4ACE-455D-BAD7-ABC4DD2F147B&displaylang=en.

Last edited Nov 12, 2014 at 5:46 PM by zacharye, version 4