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    Nintendo announces Wii U, awesomeness ensues

    Gadgets Team
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    Nintendo announces Wii U, awesomeness ensues

    While we were unable to go to E3 this year (you can blame that on the 5,000 mile divide) we’re still able to follow the multiple reveals via the series of tubes we call the internet. One of the biggest announcements to come out today was the Wii U, Nintendo’s successor to the massively successful Wii. The Wii U features a 6.2-inch touchscreen in the middle along with the traditional buttons and d-pads that consoles have. The unit will have an accelerometer, is totally backwards-compatible with old Wii titles and has built-in camera that allows some facetime-esque chat functionality. A neat feature is the devices’ ability to continue a game on the touchscreen when someone uses the TV that’s being used. Speaking of TVs, the Wii U will beam the game images straight on to your boob-tube without the use of wires, and will be in HD. There’s so many gameplay possibilities with the new console that it’s really hard to begin to fathom, but if the Wii is anything to go by, it’s probably going be awesome and fun.

    Source: Joystiq

    Toys for the Big Boys

    Gadgets Team
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    Toys for the Big Boys

    This father’s day, give the most important man in your life the gift of being a kid again. Let your favorite big (or not so big) boys relive or simply enjoy their childhood with these cool and exciting toys.

     

    Hot Wheels Custom Motors

    Challenge your two boys (big and small) to build their very own customized Hot Wheels.  From street race car to monster machine all these are possible with the interchangeable modular system that can be assembled in a matter of few seconds.   It has more than 15 easy-to-snap parts providing your big boys endless combinations that would let them transform their Hot Wheels from one style to another.

    Airhogs Sharpshooter

    Lock in your spouse heart with this newest Air Hogs Sharpshooter.  A micro remote control helicopter and shoots real projectiles.  It combines the indoor/outdoor flying capabilities with dual rotor, detailed fuselage, realistic landing gear and a stealthy black paint.

    Tech Deck Paul Rodriguez Small Skate Lab

    If you find your big boy too old for skateboarding having his knees skinned, why not let him still get the experience with the authentic replica of Paul Rodriguez’s first training facility.  Let him hit the killer lines, smooth out sketchy landings and perfect each trick just by fingerboarding.  Collect all the pieces and replicate the complete skate lab of P. Rod.

     

    Hot Wheels, Air Hogs, and Tech Deck are exclusively distributed by Richwell Trading Corporation. They are available at all leading toy stores and department stores nationwide. For more information, call Richwell Trading Corporation at telephone number 732-5141 to 47 loc 211 or visit our website at www.richwell.net.

     

    Review: Acer Iconia Smart

    Gadgets Team
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    Review: Acer Iconia Smart

    The high-end smartphone space is dominated by premium brands like HTC, Samsung and LG, with a smattering of different form factors and screen sizes ranging from the standard 4-inch Samsung Nexus S and to the relatively bigger 4.3-inch HTC Desire HD. To really make an impact in a market that’s dominated by high-profile brands and devices, you need to be a little bit different. The Acer Iconia Smart is certainly that. Sporting a massive 4.8-inch, 480×1024 resolution capacitive sceen, the Iconia Smart is an imposing smartphone, at least physically.

    In a time where smartphones are shedding hard keys and moving into touch-sensitive controls, the Iconia Smart does the opposite. Housed directly below the gigantic 4.8-inch screen lies the home, search, back and option keys.

    The volume rocker and camera shortcut keys are all located on the right side of the unit.

    The left side holds the USB slot that pulls double duty as a USB charging port and the HDMI out port if you want to export video to your HDTV.

    There’s an eight megapixel camera located on the back, as well as a smaller secondary camera on the front. The whole thing weighs in at a hefty 185 grams – which is a bit heavier than your average smartphone. Some may see this is a negative, but I actually didn’t mind the added weight as it gave the unit a bit of heft. Of course, your mileage may vary. The battery is located at the bottom of the unit, and Acer seems to have taken a few design cues from HTC’s unibody devices when it comes to accessing the battery. You have to take off the bottom cover first, and then open the compartment via a small latch to access the battery.

    The Iconia Smart uses Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS with UI enhancements courtesy of Acer. The unlock screen slightly differs in that you’re presented with 3 initial home screens that you can scroll through without unlocking the phone – great for checking how many unread SMS messages and missed calls you’ve received, checking to see what track is playing and so on. As with anything on Android, that screen is customizable.

    Once you’re past that, you get 7 home screens that you can customize depending on your needs.

    The first and seventh screen has Acer’s own quick-access solution that acts like a mini-rolodex of sorts for your media (music, photos and video) for the first screen and websites in the case of the second.

    The Iconia Smart is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255-1 Snapdragon Scorpion processor. While I was slightly disappointed that something this large wasn’t powered by a dual-core procie, the performance of the unit made up for it – the device was pretty quick, and it was capable of decent graphics. To scientifically gauge performance, we ran a couple of benchmarking tools on the Iconia Smart – Neocore, a graphic benchmarking tool, AnTutu, a system benchmark that stresses the entire phone from graphics to memory, and  Quadrant Standard, which gives another benchmark perspective into the performance of the phone.

    Because of the unique size of the Iconia Smart, the Neocore benchmark only ran in the maximum 480×854 resolution, and not the 480×1024 the screen was capable of. Nevertheless, the Iconia Smart came in at a zippy 57.6 FPS.

    For AnTuTu, the results were 1992, which were decent.

    Quadrant Standard on the other hand, gave the Iconia Smart 1480 points, which was a bit higher than what the benchmark gave the Nexus One on Android 2.2.

    For something that has a huge screen, battery life wasn’t as bad as I’d initially thought. The Iconia Smart needed a sip at the end of every workday (with moderate to heavy use), but considering the screen size I think that’s pretty good. Call quality was good.

    Two issues stop me from recommending the Iconia Smart to Android freshmen. Ironically, its biggest appeal is also its biggest stumbling block: size. While the Iconia Smart is easy enough for someone like me to use, anyone with dainty hands (which constitute a majority of Filipinos) is in for rough ride. It’s mainly a personal thing, and as such your mileage may vary. Sound isn’t as loud as I’d hoped, which is a major let down since the device sports Dolby Mobile sound enhancement. The huge screen is such a nice place to view movies, unfortunately the disappointing sound makes headphones a necessity if you want to hear what the actors are saying.

    The Acer Iconia Smart is a nice take on Android, and its distinct size and features make it stand out against the myriad of other devices currently in the market. Unfortunately there’s still no word on local pricing, or when it’ll be available for local consumption.

     

    What’s Hot:

    Large, 4.8-inch capacitive touchscreen

    Large screen makes it a natural for watching movies

    Good performance, ok battery life

     

    What’s Not:

    Large screen makes it a challenge for people with dainty hands to use

    Sound could be better

     

    Bottomline:

    The Acer Iconia Smart is certainly different, and if you don’t have issues with a large screen, it just might be your next Android smartphone.

    iOS 5 is PC-Free!

    Gadgets Team
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    iOS 5 is PC-Free!

    No longer will you have to take on the cumbersome task of connecting your iDevice to a computer in order to set it up.

    iOS 5 presents its users a PC Free experience, which means that devices can be activated wirelessly instantly. As long as your iPhone or iPad has access to a shared Wi-Fi connection, it will sync, update and backup itself with the help of iCloud.

    So, for all of you out there that have your parents and/or grandparents constantly hounding you for help with their iDevices, you just received a break.

     

    Source: Apple, MacRumors

    iCloud: a closer look at Apple’s new service

    Gadgets Team
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    iCloud: a closer look at Apple’s new service

    After following and anticipating its release for quite some time, iCloud has officially been made public.

    By taking a trip over to the Apple’s site, users can read the official description. Confirming previous rumors, iCloud provides an easy way to sync your music purchases across all of your Apple devices (assuming you have more than one), functioning as an online hard drive. So, to mimic Apple’s own example, if you download a song on your iPhone at work, it will also be available on the iMac or iPad you left at home. Moreover, every single song you’ve previously bought will be stored in a “purchase history”, meaning it will be available for download any time to any of your devices.

    iCloud also has the capability to sync any of your previously purchased songs, regardless of the source (i.e. ripped from CDs, downloaded from P2P software, bought at Amazon, etc.). In tandem with iTunes Match, iCloud will search its online database and find the corresponding song and instantly place it in your library. The only songs you have to manually upload are those that can’t be located in the database.

    Furthermore, iTunes will automatically upgrade the fidelity of your music files to 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality. Whether or not this upgrade in sonic quality is free or requires an additional fee is still unclear.

    The annual price to avail of iCloud is $24.99 for 20,000 songs (approx Php 1,080.00). Oddly enough, Apple’s doesn’t mention anything about streaming, and instead focuses on downloading and syncing. This leads to some confusion on what exactly iCloud is offering as its primary service.

    MP3.com, back in the year 2000, introduced an identical concept but was quickly shut down by the RIAA. So, since Apple was able to sign deals with record labels and publishers, will iCloud’s apparent “legality” last long?

    Other questions arise with the launch of Apple’s new service, especially with regards to artists and the indie community. According to TuneCore, labels and publishers receive revenues every time an iCloud subscriber streams or re-downloads a song, based on Apple’s current business model.  While this initially sounds great, it will definitely shape the direction of the music industry. For starters, indie artists might have a reason to worry because not only will they get less playtime, they will struggle to receive their financial dues as well, despite the fact that they can be featured on iTunes for a fee. Moreover, iCloud might dominate the mass music market far too much by imposing to its users to download only from its database and subconsciously discourage them from hunting for and acquiring music from other sources, making it even more difficult for obscure artists to be heard.

    Regardless, iCloud is a very useful service and provides its users with a lot of perks. It will be interesting to see in the coming months how both the public and the music community will be affected by Apple’s new service.

     

    Source: Apple, CreateDigitalMusic, TuneCore

    MI6 hacks al-Qaeda on-line magazine, replaces bomb-making recipes with delicious cookie dishes

    Gadgets Team
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    MI6 hacks al-Qaeda on-line magazine, replaces bomb-making recipes with delicious cookie dishes

    Don’t get us wrong, hacking is a nefarious thing to do. But once in a while, its devilish powers are harnessed for good, like when British intelligence service MI6 (yes, the same MI6 from the Bond films) replaces bomb-making recipes with recipes from “The Best Cupcakes in America” published by the Ellen DeGeneres show. Would-be Jihadists expecting DIY recipes to blow up infidels instead found recipes for Mojito Cupcakes – “made of white rum cake and draped in vanilla buttercream”- and the Rocky Road Cupcake – “warning: sugar rush ahead!” This important and hilarious operation may have just cemented MI6 as the best intelligence service ever – yes, even better than the Mossad, and those guys are hardcore. Game, set and match. It’s your move, CIA.

    Source: Telegraph

     

    PowerColor single slot Radeon HD 6850 makes life easy for your case

    Gadgets Team
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    PowerColor single slot Radeon HD 6850 makes life easy for your case

    If there’s one thing that you should expect from today’s graphic cards, its that they’re massive space hogs. It’s not surprising for most of them to consume two, even three slots in your rig. The PowerColor HD 6850 we spotted at COMPUTEX is an oddity then, as it only consumes a single slot in your precious rig, making it a great choice for people who have very limited space in their rigs.

    Of course, a thinner profile doesn’t mean that some of the features have been nerfed – the card has 1GB GDDR5 Memory, an engine clock of 775MHz, DirectX 11 support and all the other goodies that the reference 6850 is known for.

    Apple has its head in the iCloud

    Gadgets Team
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    Apple has its head in the iCloud

    After numerous speculations, Apple has finally laid down the details for iCloud, the company’s all encompassing cloud service. Aside from pushing your music from your iOS device of choice, iCloud also allows users to access their photos, iBooks, video, and a myriad of other items including devices settings and contacts. The service will be free and will not be ad-driven. Another ingenious feature included in iCloud is the Photo Stream service – that automatically uploads the pictures you take (or in the case of devices like the Apple TV, imports it to your the cloud) and makes it available to all of the iOS devices you own. Pretty cool huh? Head on to the official press release below to get the whole gist of everything iCloud has to offer.

    Source: Apple

    Tomb Raider gets a gritty reboot, new Lara is love at first sight

    Gadgets Team
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    Tomb Raider gets a gritty reboot, new Lara is love at first sight

    The Tomb Raider franchise hasn’t had smoothest time as of late, and terrible release upon terrible release has made the franchise akin to Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin. But like the unintentionally hilarious Batman with nipples, Tomb Raider is getting a gritty reboot. It seems that we join new Lara as she’s marooned in an island, with nothing but her wits, improvised weapons and oh so pretty face. You can go here for additional media including screenshots of Miss Croft in action, and we’ve embedded the trailer below.

     

    Asus Eee Pad Slider pics, set to launch “soon”

    Gadgets Team
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    Asus Eee Pad Slider pics, set to launch “soon”

    With the bevy of announcements from Asus in their pre-COMPUTEX presscon, like the 3D tablet and the PadFone, you could forgive us of we didn’t get around to our hands on of the Eee Pad Slider sooner. Nevertheless, its here now and we liked what we saw: 10.1-inch LED IPS screen, retractable keyboard (unlike the detachable design in the Transformer) and Android 3.0 on board.

    Asus has teased that the tablet is coming soon from its own Facebook account, though a firm date was never mentioned. There’s also a bit of debate of whether the Transformer would use NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor or Intel’s Atom Z670 as reported by Engadget.

    Product Highlight: PowerColor Vortex 2 PCS+ 6950

    Gadgets Team
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    Product Highlight: PowerColor Vortex 2 PCS+ 6950

    We got some hands-on time with the PowerColor’s Vortex 2 6950 during our visit to their booth during COMPUTEX. The Vortex 2 PCS+ is the company’s own take on the AMD 6950, and as such has been modified extensively.

    Aside from a traditional heatsink, the card also features heatpipes to draw heat away from the GPU, along with 2 fans. But these aren’t regular card fans – their height can be adjusted by the user which then increases the air intake and maximizes cooling.

    Another nice feature is that when the fans are placed in opposite angles, a vortex effect is created producing even better cooling for the card. Stats include an 850MHz engine clock, 1300MHz (5.2Gbps) memory clock, 2GB GDDR5 of memory and a 256bit memory interface. We’ll get a review up as soon as we get a demo unit from the folks at PowerColor.

    PowerColor Wireless Media Center beams HD content erm, wirelessly

    Gadgets Team
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    PowerColor Wireless Media Center beams HD content erm, wirelessly

    The crazy/wonderful/insane tech conference known as COMPUTEX has ended, but we’re still sifting through our photos to give you guys a glimpse of products you can expect in a few months. Case in point: the PowerColor Wireless Media Center. This small device allows users to beam full HD content (including 3D) from a PC to a HDTV without wires, which is useful when those devices are located in different parts of your house. You get to enjoy full 8-channel audio, 1080p at 60Hz with less than 1ms of latency and about 100 feet of range.

    Get the best deals with Gadgets Magazine JUNE issue out NOW!

    Gadgets Team
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    Get the best deals with Gadgets Magazine JUNE issue out NOW!

    Calling all bargain-hunters, deal-makers, and bangers for their buck: the June issue of Gadgets Magazine is out now and willing to help you find some sweet deals to make ushering in the rainy season a wee bit sweeter. Check out the “next big thing” Lauren Young and flip through the pages to find some pretty great bargains while getting your monthly dose of the latest gadgets, gizmos, and lifestyle products.

    So don’t delay. Summer may be over, but the deals definitely are all year round.

     

    Meet Luce, the first solar powered laptop

    Gadgets Team
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    Meet Luce, the first solar powered laptop

    Meet Luce, the double solar panel powered PC, a concept laptop designed by Andrea Ponti. It’s rumored to be able to power continuously under the sun by utilizing two solar panels located on the back of the display and beneath the touch keyboard.

    It’s still unconfirmed whether this model has actually been tested, but Ponti’s concept was shortlisted in Fujitsu’s design competition earlier this year. Whether or not the company will push thru with manufacturing this solar powered laptop is still in the wind.

    As for now, we can only imagine what it would be like to actually own the first fully functional solar powered laptop, which could hopefully lead us to greener pastures in the wasteland of technology. In Ponti’s words,

    Luce is a concept designed to turn maker’s attention to real sustainable production. Wireless devices, powered by nature, completely free of cables, represent the future for a sustainable development focused on user’s real needs.

     

    Source: TheTechJournal

    Pentagon now considers hacking an act of war

    Gadgets Team
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    Pentagon now considers hacking an act of war

    Recent cyber attacks on corporations and the growing use of malicious software to crack government servers and other vital installations have risen in past years. In response, the Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage from another country constitutes as an act of war. This means that the Pentagon could potentially retaliate with traditional military hardware which includes a vast array of weapons at its disposal. Of course, not every cyber attack will have this serious of a retaliation – the Pentagon says that only attacks that could potentially threaten lives, or do as much damage and destruction as a traditional military attack would be liable for retaliation.

    Source: WSJ

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