Gadgets

OUYA continues to be smart about marketing its yet to be released device, this time by putting  it in front of a mass of people traditionally ignored at press and industry-centric E3 – the players themselves. The company will be setting up in a parking lot outside the LA Convention Center and making sure its booth is packed with games by providing exhibiting devs with everything from equipment to free food. (...)Original Story OUYA E3 Show To Be Held In Public Parking Lot © Geeky Gadgets, 2013. | Permalink | Unauthorized duplication and or distribution of our content is strictly forbidden © Geeky Gadgets, 2013 The post OUYA E3 Show To Be Held In Public Parking Lot appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

When Samsung unveiled its first 4K Ultra HD TV at CES this year, it said other sizes would follow, both larger and smaller than the initial 85-inch version. Now it's apparently ready to fulfill part of that promise, announcing in Korea that 65- and 55-inch models will launch next month. Of course our next question is how these smaller models will compare to the $39,999 MSRP 85S9 UHD TV in price. Hopefully they'll follow the path blazed by Sony, which recently introduced models at that size with pricing well below the $10,000 benchmark, although we expect Seiki's 50-incher will still hold the crown for value pricing. The press release mentions they will feature Samsung's upgradeable Smart TV platform and the "micro dimming ultimate" LED lighting of their larger cousin, but the odd "Timeless Gallery" frame / stand (pictured above on the 85-incher) was not listed. Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung Comments Source: Korea Newswire

EA has decided to stop putting its games’ online content behind a paywall by putting an end to its anti-used game policy known as Online Pass. The Online Passes ensured only first time game purchasers enjoyed feature like multiplayer or DLC for free, with players buying used games having to purchase features separately. (...)Original Story EA Ending Online Pass Initiative © Geeky Gadgets, 2013. | Permalink | Unauthorized duplication and or distribution of our content is strictly forbidden © Geeky Gadgets, 2013 The post EA Ending Online Pass Initiative appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Ubisoft gets weirdly specific about the release date of blockbuster franchise Assassin’s Creed blockbuster theater opening night. Despite a slew of high profile video game films recently stalled or even outright cancelled (Bioshock, Uncharted and World of Warcraft come to mind), Regency Films and Ubisoft Motion Pictures are keen to bring this one home. (...)Original Story Assassin’s Creed Film Coming May 2015 © Geeky Gadgets, 2013. | Permalink | Unauthorized duplication and or distribution of our content is strictly forbidden © Geeky Gadgets, 2013 The post Assassin’s Creed Film Coming May 2015 appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Verizon has increased the data caps on its 3G prepaid plans, increasing them to 2GB and 4GB of data on its 3G service. Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

A new report claims that the Nexus edition Samsung Galaxy S4 is actually the T-Mobile variant of this popular smartphone. Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

It is being reported that Verizon is starting to ship Galaxy S4 units to customers ahead of the scheduled May 23rd release date. Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

Sometimes it's important to just take a moment and reflect on life. It can be a real relief to let go of technology for a moment and think about something else. History maybe. And there's no better way to slow down than by taking a walk with an eight-foot-tall, 1,000-pound robot that moves 10-feet per minute. Ahh, how quaint.Read more...

Joshua Pearce, PhD, is a researcher at Michigan Tech who rearches open source and low-impact solutions to engineering problems. He is also the founder of the Printers For Peace contest, an effort to bring together clever 3D-printed ideas that have loftier aims. You can win one of two 3D printers if you submit a winning project. We asked Pearce a few questions about his goals for the project and about the future of 3D printing. John Biggs: Why Printers For Peace? Joshua Pearce: I think it is clear that low-cost open-source 3D printing has enormous potential to do real good for the world – particularly for the poor as it radically reduces the cost of high-value products like scientific tools and consumer goods. This threatens a lot of entrenched interests because the average Joe can fabricate extremely complex products at home for pennies, which is disruptive to say the least. I have noticed a clear bias in 3D printing news coverage – any advances on the low-end of the spectrum are generally ignored or vilified. The media frenzy about 3D printed guns is actually having terrifying consequences – and I don’t mean the guns. A California senator has already proposed registration, background checks, and licensing for 3D printers! Michigan Tech and Type A Machines sponsored the contest to get the more positive truth about 3D printers into the conversation. There are over 90,000 open-source 3D printable designs available and only one low-quality gun. We do not want to lose the baby with the bathwater. Our aim is to raise awareness of the power of 3D printing to change the world for the better. JB: What do you think will happen now that the 3D printed gun is out of the bag? It was inevitable, obviously, but what does it mean? JP: The 3D printed gun is a red herring. Anyone who wants a gun can make a much better one using more traditional tools found in any machine shop and many garages — or just buy one. I am, however, very concerned that the debate about 3D printed guns will be used to squash the incredible technological development we are seeing in the open-source 3D printing community. JB: What’s the coolest Printers for Peace project you’ve seen so far? JP: The contest just opened, but there are some really cool designs already developed that I think would make good starting points for derivatives. I really like some of the small-scale 3D printed windmill designs – and there is a graduate student working on what looks to be a printable recyclebot. I would love to see a reliable 3D printed treadle pump as this is one of the most successful appropriate technologies for lifting rural farmers out of poverty in the developing world. JB: What’s next? 3D printed bazookas? 3D printed heart stents? Where do you see this headed, in either direction? JP: I think it is clear that existing manufacturers will continue to move from using high-end 3D printing for rapid prototyping into actual manufacturing creating entirely new classes of jobs (e.g. automobile parts, human body parts, etc.). This is exciting, but not nearly as exciting as what is happening on the low-end of the spectrum. As open-source 3D printable designs continue to grow exponentially the value of owning a 3D printer is climbing as their quality improves and actual costs continue to decline. Thus, low-cost open-source 3D printers will become ubiquitous household items, which people use to make a wide array of consumer goods, replacement parts, and highly customized products. Following shortly after I hope to see recyclebots become similarly widespread – with people recycling their waste plastic inhome to make their own products. The implications for improving human well-being are staggering.

There’s plenty of buzz about the concept of making our cities “smarter” — that is, loading them up with sensors and data-driven services to improve efficiency and quality of life. Hell, even Google has taken to loading up its event venues with scores of sensors. Most of the discussion out there deals with how local governments are working toward this lofty, nebulous goal, but a team called Acrobotics Industries is trying to put the onus on the citizens. To that end the team has kicked off a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign for a small sensor array called the Smart Citizen kit in hopes that people will start collecting and sharing their environmental data with the world. “There’s a problem with the way current cities were built,” Acrobotic’s COO Francisco Zabala told me. “Beijing’s air quality is insanely bad — we think we have it bad in L.A. — and it’s not getting any better. The heart (or brain, I guess) of the Smart Citizen project is an Arduino-powered kit that gets tucked away inside (or outside, if you’ve got the right kind of enclosure) of a user’s home to track local environmental variables — think temperature, humidity, air composition, ambient brightness, and sound levels. It’s arguably neat enough to keep tabs on the environmental conditions at your home while you’re not there, but the real value here is when a host of users set up their Smart Citizen sensors and fire up them up en masse. It’s the team’s hope that Smart Citizen kits will sell widely enough that regular people will be able to get an accurate glance at environmental conditions with a finer sort of granularity than you’d get by firing up, say, the Weather Channel app. For what it’s worth, Zabala concedes that the Smart Citizen project is largely geared toward making people aware of climate change and global warming without getting too political or divisive about it. “I believe that climate is changing for the worse, but our approach is more personal,” Zabala said. “By raising awareness we’re working toward a solution without banging on people’s heads.” As it happens, a few of those Smart Citizen kits have already been fired up. A quick look at a demo version of the sensor-tracking website reveals that a handful of the little things are live in Zabala’s native Barcelona — the Smart Citizen team ran an earlier, more local crowdfunding campaign (Zabala called it a “proof of concept run”) that saw a number of users in Spain install and fire up their sensor arrays all around the city. Hovering over a bright blue spot displays the latest environmental data (users can define how often they want those updates to occur), while greyed out units haven’t been fired up lately. Thanks to how the Smart Citizen kit is constructed, users will eventually be able to monitor more than just the environmental criteria this early kit supports. Zabala said that the Acrobotics team is currently working on swappable daughterboards that will allow the Smart Citizen kit to be used for soil and water testing, too — perfect for you city-dwelling gardeners. If you’re suddenly itching to monitor your surroundings more acutely, you’ll be able to lay claim to a fully constructed Smart Citizen for $155 — the more handy among you can save a little money by springing for the $105 unassembled kit instead.