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Explore 2,500 train stations across the globe in 3D

Explore 2,500 train stations across the globe in 3D

When travelling by train, whether locally or long-distance, you visit many stations. Albert Guillaume Marcer’s website Stations visualizes more than 2,500 stations in Europe and North America. To do this, Marcer explored the stations over the last ten years and made detailed notes on tracks, transfer options and more. Marcer has digitized these records and made them available in three-dimensional view on the Stations website. Together with publicly available sources, this has resulted in a highly realistic representation of each station. Stations allows users to virtually explore over 2,500 stations in Europe and North America, along with interesting background information on the buildings. Stations After opening the website, navigate using the Google map to search for available entries. Alternatively, use the two menus below the map to select the city or station. The website displays a 3D graphic of the station and important information below. This makes it easier to find your way around stations, for example when changing trains. There is also interesting additional information about the stations and their architectural background.

‘Fake frames:’ An uncomfortable truth about DLSS

‘Fake frames:’ An uncomfortable truth about DLSS

You may hate “fake” frames. But if you didn’t know they were AI generated, would you like them in games more than natively rendered ones? Turns out, German publication ComputerBase found the answer is often… yes. At least, more often than raging online discussions might indicate. Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the surprising topics on our YouTube show or latest news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website ! Here’s how the tests worked: ComputerBase chose six games to pull scenes from using Nvidia’s DLSS 4.5, AMD’s FSR 4, and native rendering. Then the outlet placed those unlabeled segments side-by-side and had the community vote for their favorite. In three of the six games ( Anno 117 , Arc Raiders , and Horizon Forbidden West ), DLSS 4.5 took more than 50 percent of the vote—and for two other games ( Arc Raiders and The Last of Us Part II ), over 40 percent. To me, this is a fascinating contrast between what people say they want, and what they actually gravitate toward. I understand how the softening emphasis on raster performance could feel like a grift. By this long-standing measure, GPU makers keep slowing progress, while still asking consumers for more and more cash. And yet, if you plop down a bunch of pixels in front of a decent portion of gamers, a majority of them will pick those that include “fake” frames. They want what looks best, and for many, that’s apparently AI-enhanced scenes. Last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said AI was the future of games—that neural rendering was the “ way graphics ought to be .” You could interpret these ComputerBase poll results as vindication of that belief, that the majority already embraces that destiny. I don’t, though. I see an opportunity to better articulate what you prefer visually—so you can better demand it from coming technology. The breakdown of the results (machine translated from the original German). ComputerBase I looked at the “blind” game comparisons, as well as earlier side-by-side comparisons with labeling. For me, the DLSS 4.5 scenes sometimes look over-rendered. Take Assassin’s Creed Shadows as an example—all of the grass looks more defined with DLSS 4.5, yes. But the human eye doesn’t focus on everything in view. It concentrates on a certain portion, and whatever is not in that area starts to lose detail. In games, I prefer a hierarchy of visuals, so I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of crispness to approximate that. And that’s how the natively rendered version gets my vote. But what if I didn’t have to choose native rendering for that desired outcome? What if I could instead expect upscaling to simulate both what I want (accuracy of focus) and what others want (accuracy of detail)? I wonder if we’d care as much about traditional raster vs. AI upscaling performance. (At least, when it comes to visuals.) At the end of the day, gamers will have DLSS pushed on them. Nvidia holds over 90 percent market share for consumer GPUs, and its CEO is all-in on AI upscaling. We won’t have a choice about the coming shift, no matter how long we debate it. But I think we have influence over how good it becomes—as long as our expectations are clear. In this episode of The Full Nerd In this episode of The Full Nerd , Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, and Michael Crider discuss the idea of PC rentals, Puget System’s hardware reliability report, and peripherals that recently crossed our desks. Let me tell you, I’ve never seen Adam react as fast as he did to my thoughts on renting a Steam Machine. But despite him trying to rally the masses against me, it turns out not everyone took up arms against my proposal. Alex Esteves / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel , and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows, either—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition on our channel, too. PLUS: Adam’s new joint show with Retro Gaming Corps has finally launched! Catch Episode 0 of Expedition: Handheld now! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community —it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s slimmer nerd news I dumped a lot on y’all last week—so we’re taking more of a breather this week. But plenty demanded attention this week, including rumors of delayed CPUs, nifty science, and a really cool (hot) custom PC. Andrey Matveev / Unsplash HP put a number on it : The company said in a recent earnings call that for its desktop PCs, memory and storage now eat about 35 percent of the cost. Watch out on public Wi-Fi : A new exploit makes open networks once again a risk for meddler-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks. Times change : Used to be that internal capture cards always trumped external units. But Will did some testing, and it turns out that old guideline doesn’t hold up the same now. Vaccine against dementia? The link hasn’t been fully confirmed, and the exact amount of benefit is unclear, but you know what? I’d take even a 15 to 20 percent decrease in risk of developing dementia. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree : Such is the conclusion I took from this article about chimpanzees and why alcohol shows up in their urine. Billet Labs Steampunk PC : This system built into an old-school, 200-pound radiator lends extra weight (ahem) to the idea of a desktop computer as a space heater… That would be a bummer : Brad’s out again, so I’m slipping in this rumor about AMD’s Zen 6 and Intel’s Nova Lake CPUs possibly getting delayed until January 2027. Boo. Value buy : One of the keyboards we discussed this week was the Ducky OK-M, Mike’s new budget pick for best mechanical keyboard. There’s a lot packed into it. Earthquake trigger : As a Californian, learning that solar flares could trigger earthquakes makes me a tad nervous. We’re supposed to be due for a big one. Catch you all next week—I don’t know about you all, but I’m a little confused by how close spring is already. But you won’t catch me complaining about the warming temps. Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung , founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.

A cheap MacBook is the perfect way for Apple to win over Windows users

A cheap MacBook is the perfect way for Apple to win over Windows users

The MacBook is coming back — or at least, that's what the rumors claim . Next week, Apple is expected to announce a colorful, low-cost, non-Air, non-Pro MacBook powered by one of its mobile processors. By avoiding its pricier M-series chips, Apple may reportedly be able to reach a low $699 or $799 price for the MacBook. The $999 MacBook Air is the cheapest laptop on the company's website right now, but Apple also sold the older M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for $700 in 2024, which later went down to $650 last year. That Walmart deal was a smart way for Apple to test out the viability of cheaper MacBooks without building an entirely new product. But now the M1 Air’s design looks seriously dated, and the company also needs to move beyond the six-year-old M1 chip. It's time to get serious about delivering a true low-cost Apple laptop. There's another compelling reason to bring back a cheaper MacBook: It's the perfect way  to court disgruntled Windows users, something Apple hasn't really done since its "Get A Mac" ads from the mid-2000s. I figure the unbridled success of the iPhone and iPad made Apple focus less on directly competing with Windows. The sleek designs of the 2011-2015 era MacBook Air and Pros were their main selling points, but Apple's push towards USB-C-only machines and unreliable butterfly keyboards later made it clear it wasn't totally focused on Macs. A MacBook Air M5 on a table. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget But now Microsoft is distracted by AI — it's been pushing Copilot and AI features for years, instead of improving the Windows experience with more useful upgrades. Recent talk of agentic AI capabilities , which would let Copilot handle tasks for you automatically, also sparked plenty of criticism from Windows users . And with all of the focus on AI, Microsoft has also released some disastrous Windows updates over the last year, which have bricked OS installations . So, Apple, why not make a direct play for Windows users? Last year, I covered why it's a great time to jump ship from Windows to Mac , and I haven't been able to let go of that idea since. Apple's M-series chips are shockingly fast and efficient, and its hardware tends to be more durable than typical PC fare. Rumors point to Apple developing a new aluminum case for the low-cost MacBook, so it will likely feel more polished than a typical sub-$1,000 Windows laptop. macOS has also avoided the bloat that's plagued Windows for years — you can turn off Apple Intelligence with two clicks if you want to, and there aren't any annoying ads to deal with. And while it used to be a pain to transition from Windows to Mac, it’s far easier these days, especially if you mainly rely on web apps. It also wouldn't be tough for Apple to make short tutorials to help Windows users get their bearings with the macOS basics, like installing apps and juggling app windows. Apple could also make a play for iPhone owners using Windows, who may not be aware of the many ways iOS and macOS are integrated. iPhone mirroring may be a huge draw on its own. Rumors also suggest the upcoming MacBook might use the A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 Pro, a chip that benchmarks faster than the M1 . Even if it only has six cores, making it slower for heavy workloads than the M2, an A18 Pro-powered MacBook would still be more than enough power for basic productivity work. Not everyone needs the surprising amount of GPU power in the MacBook Air — especially if downgrading means they can save $200 to $300. I'm not saying any of this through any sort of Apple-loving bias. I typically use a MacBook Pro for work, but I'm a Windows user at heart. Windows was my gateway to computing in the '90s, back when Macs were far more expensive than PCs. These days, I spend more time on my Windows desktop making podcasts, playing PC games and bumming around the internet than I do working on Macs. And yet, it’s hard to deny everything Apple is doing right today — the only thing it’s missing is an inexpensive laptop entry. A $699 or $799 MacBook simply makes sense. And for many Windows users, it’ll be just the escape from Microsoft they need. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/a-cheap-macbook-is-the-perfect-way-for-apple-to-win-over-windows-users-130000045.html?src=rss

ScarCruft Uses Zoho WorkDrive and USB Malware to Breach Air-Gapped Networks

ScarCruft Uses Zoho WorkDrive and USB Malware to Breach Air-Gapped Networks

The North Korean threat actor known as ScarCruft has been attributed to a fresh set of tools, including a backdoor that uses Zoho WorkDrive for command-and-control (C2) communications to fetch more payloads and an implant that uses removable media to relay commands and breach air-gapped networks. The campaign, codenamed Ruby Jumper by Zscaler ThreatLabz, involves the deployment of malware