Gadgets

Scanadu clearly knows to tap into our collective Star Trek dreams, as the company just reached $1 million in funding for its Scout tricorder. The backing so far comes from people in 91 countries, including luminaries like Eugene Roddenberry (who else?) and Steve Wozniak. That figure is more than symbolic, we'd add -- backers who've paid for a Scout can now get theirs in black rather than a clinical-looking white. Should the new color option prove tempting, it's not necessarily too late; as of this writing, there's still a few days left to make a pledge. Filed under: Household, Science Comments Source: Indiegogo

Those spikey deals look pretty menacing. It wouldn't be a bad guess to think that they're abstract art meant to invoke a Medieval torture aesthetic. But that's way off. The infinitely repeating barbs are part of the anechoic chambers at the Technical University of Denmark. Basically they absorb sound and electromagnetic waves so scientists can test wave-emitting devices for things like volume and clarity. And they look badass doing it.Read more...

In summer 2012 the news broke that a feature-length Lego movie was actually happening and slated for 2014 release. And it's all true! The first trailer shows LEGO figures and indicates a chosen-one-saves-the-world-type plot. Plus a lot of superhero mentions.Read more...

Anyone with a propensity to misplace keys knows how irritating it is to look for them when you are running late. But help is at hand for those people with a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone that can connect to tracking devices such as Button TrackR, a coin-shaped little number currently fundraising on Indiegogo. One of the innovations that Button TrackR introduces to this growing market niche is crowd sourced tracking that helps extend the search party. .. Continue Reading Button TrackR adds crowd sourced tracking to search for lost objects Section: Mobile Technology Tags: Bluetooth, GPS, Indiegogo, Search Technology, Tracking Related Articles: Wallet TrackR sounds an alert to stop you losing your wallet The Gadget Hound locates the items you always lose Button 2.0 fastens shirt and headphones iPhone 3G King’s Button – the world’s most expensive phone Samsung Galaxy S4 to feature eye-tracking technology Nuance demonstrates open voice search prototype

Dish Network won't try to beat SoftBank's US$21.6 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, apparently clearing the way for the Japanese service provider to buy Sprint.Dish set off a bidding war for the third-largest U.S. mobile operator in January, and in April its offer for Sprint rose to $25.5 billion. But last week, when SoftBank sweetened its own offer, Sprint said Dish's plan couldn't be carried out and gave the company until Tuesday to submit its "best and final" offer. Sprint said it had cut off talks with Dish and requested its aggressive suitor destroy Sprint documents it had obtained in the due-diligence process.In a statement Tuesday, Dish said Sprint had made it impossible to submit a new bid."While Dish continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint, the decisions made by Sprint to prematurely terminate our due diligence process and accept extreme deal protections in its revised agreement with SoftBank, among other things, have made it impracticable for Dish to submit a revised offer by the June 18th deadline imposed by Sprint," Dish wrote. "We will consider our options with respect to Sprint, and focus our efforts and resources on completing the Clearwire tender offer."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MDP benchmarks: prepare for ludicrous speed -

As we are heading into the final two quarters of 2013 during which a new generation of mobile devices is going to be launched, and many of them will be undoubtedly powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chip. We knew this [...] Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

Whatever you think of Kanye West, the release of his sixth album is a big deal. I'm totally biased, I've already listened to the album probably two dozen times, and "Blood on the Leaves" is an early favorite. Read more...

It’s entirely possible that money really does make the world go round, but we reckon it’s probably beer that keeps it lubricated. Sorry to do two boozy ones in a row but it’s true. We like beer. And we’re not alone. As the summer finally arrives...

Heavy texters who are joined at the hip with their smartphones could see that figure of speech become more literal in the future, as Intel has suggested it is working on wearable devices."We're looking at novel display devices," said Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner at Bloomberg's The Next Big Thing Summit this week.Rattner said that Intel is starting to build such devices internally and confirmed that it has experimental devices in the labs that could stream short messages like texts."Particularly if you think of how much texting goes on today, wouldn't it be nice if you could just glance at your wrist and see the message traffic?""[This is] as opposed to 'you have to pull out your phone and you have to be very public about it.'"Winding the smartwatch batteryIntel may be poised to take on the emerging wearable computing market, Rattner pointed out."[It] requires a complete rethink of how you design systems and how you program systems.""One of the challenges we see, and something that we're giving a lot of attention to - not surprisingly - is how does the silicon change if you're going to wear technology."As the executive for the world's No. 1 semiconductor company, he estimates that devices worn all day long will have to be ten times more efficient than cell phones."That's where we're doing a lot of work."Intel's rivalsIntel already has up-and-running rivals in the wearable technology field. Google Glass, for example, has already released to developers in the form of Explorer Edition glasses.Even more closely linked to what Rattner is talking about, the Pebble Watch streams messages from phones, and Apple could dominate the space with a similar iWatch without even trying.But the first sign of Intel's progress in this area comes from its next-generation chip technology, Merrifield, which incorporates sensors that understand environments to save battery life.This energy-efficient 22nm Silvermont chip could be the key to Intel gaining marketshare over its rivals who already have a foot or wristhold.Here's what we think the Apple iWatch could look like.