2014 Mitsubishi Outlander review: Proof that good tech doesn’t always make for a good car

The Mitsubishi Outlander SUV sounds great when you recite the specs: adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, collision mitigation, torque vectoring, 710-watt audio system. And among compact SUVs the three rows of seats are exclusive to it and the Nissan Rogue, but the vehicle itself has a dated feel despite being in the first year of a full redesign. The ride is choppy, the cockpit has lots of exposed plastic, and folding the rear seats for cargo is a tedious three-step process per side.

Self-driving forklift Ray brings automatic parking to the luxury market

A robotic parking system recently debuted at the Dusseldorf Airport in Germany, and while it’s not the first automated parking system to see the light of day, it is among the first to prioritize elegance and design. Most robot parking solutions have thus-far been rather warehouse-like, made with big yellow and blue steel girders and large, visible mechanical parts. Your average BMW owner would probably be much more likely to trust Billy the valet with his brand new paint job, whether or not that’s a justified view. Big, moving pneumatic platforms tend to have a dour, steam-ejection aesthetic, and people don’t generally like watching their $100,000 car get shunted around like boxes at an Amazon factory — but what about a slick, friendly robot named Ray? That’s a solution that could capture the lucrative luxury market.

2015 Acura TLX review: Tech, refinement puts the new TLX within striking distance of the 3 Series

The 2015 Acura TLX is the most competent compact sports sedan to come out of Japan and the one most likely to be a threat to the reigning BMW 3 Series, our current Editors’ Choice for a compact sports sedan. The Acura TLX is cat quick, quiet, and chock full of driver assists to protect dumb pedestrians and its own momentarily inattentive drivers.

2015 Kia K900 car review: Beats the Germans on paper if not on the road

The 2015 Kia K900 sedan gives you much of the spaciousness, luxury and technology of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Kia does it for $66,000, fully equipped, when the S-Class starts at $95,000. Kia provides the industry’s slickest and most useful blind spot detection by placing additional indicators in the head-up display. You can get ventilated, reclining rear seats. This is a car to watch.

Your 3D-printed car will be ready to drive in 44 hours

You knew the printed car was going to happen, but as soon as this weekend? That’s when the first printed car arrives. It will be built up from carbon-reinforced plastics, then driven out of Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center and onto the streets of the Windy City. The vehicle will be printed over 44 hours. Technicians will add in the unprintable — electric motor, battery, wiring, window glass — and the car, called Strati, should be out the door Saturday.

How to download and install the Windows 10 Technical Preview

Microsoft, right on schedule, has made the Windows 10 Technical Preview available to download. There are 64-bit and 32-bit versions available for US English, Real English, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese. Follow these instructions to download and install the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

Samsung 840 Evo has serious performance bug, fix coming October 15

Anandtech is reporting that Samsung will release a fix for the 840 Evo on October 15. It’s not yet clear if the company will release simultaneous fixes for the 840 or the various Evo versions that ship with other form factors like M.2 or mSATA. If you can’t wait, users have reported that DiskFresh can also bring an SSD back up to full performance, though your mileage may vary with third party tools and we recommend using them with a degree of caution. The original story about a bug causing degraded performance for Samsung SSDs is below.

Thailand, to combat bad Thai food around the world, creates robot ‘e-delicious’ tasting machine

Before she was ousted from office by a military coup in May, Thailand’s prime minister pushed an interesting initiative through government: To use robots to banish the world of bad Thai food. Apparently, as she traveled the world on various diplomatic missions, she was constantly bombarded by pale imitations of real Thai food — and I’m sure we can all agree, there’s nothing worse than being forced to consume a bastardized version of your country’s quintessential cuisine. Now, the first stage of the prime minister’s initiative is finally here: A robot that tastes your Thai food, and then compares its taste and smell against pre-programmed “standard” definitions of popular Thai dishes such as tom yum soup or green curry. Yes, the Thai government has created a database of how an authentic national dish should taste.

IBM leaves the x86 market at long last: Lenovo’s $2.1 billion acquisition approved

Lenovo has finally received approval from US and EU regulators for its acquisition of IBM’s low-end x86 server business. The $2.1 billion acquisition should be finalized by Wednesday this week (October 1). The original story, when IBM originally announced its intention to sell its x86 server group to Lenovo in January, remains below.

The first three-dimensional visible light invisibility cloak

Researchers at the University of Rochester are reporting that they’ve built the first invisibility cloak that works in three dimensions, viewed from a range of angles, across the full spectral range of visible light. As you can see in the photo above, and in the video below, the invisibility effect is rather effective — and, importantly, it creates very little “telltale” distortion that usually accompanies such early attempts at cloaking (the grid lines are perfectly straight and not magnified/minimized). Best of all, though: You can make this particular kind of invisibility cloak yourself!