If there’s any creature that knows how to deal with ice and cold, it’s the Wampa from The Empire Strikes Back. But when it comes to dealing with Jedis, it’s no match for a lightsaber. So now that he doesn’t have much use for his right arm after Luke lopped it off, you can use the Wampa’s lost appendage as a cozy ice scraper. More »
Regardless of the situation, it’s relatively safe to say Samsung will never, ever run out of Galaxy monikers. Now it’s the Korean outfit’s Galaxy Stellar making the internet rounds yet again, though there’s a little more information attached this time around. Per Droid Life, Sammy’s purported Verizon-bound Galaxy Stellar will be joining the carrier’s LTE-equipped smartphone lineup with a $100 price tag (of course, that’s assuming you sign a two-year deal) and is, as you can see above, said to be carrying an “easy-to-use” Starter mode to help folks get started, plus a compact design that “fits comfortably in hands.” Most notably, however, are the tidbits flaunting Amazon apps rather than, say, the Android maker’s Play offerings — an interesting plug, to say the least. At this point nothing’s quite set in stone, so we’ll have to wait for more details to spill before making any assumptions.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software
Samsung Galaxy Stellar rumored to hit Verizon for $100, hopes to lure you in with Amazon apps originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In one of the more extreme case endings we’ve seen thus far in the near-global mobile patent court battle between Apple and Samsung, South Korea has banned nearly every device up for trial. The Seoul Central District Court has ruled that both Samsung and Apple must remove major products such as the Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4 from the market immediately. Samsung sued Apple to begin this case back in April for telecommunications standards patents and Apple responded by counter-suing for mobile device interface patents in its iPhone and iPad.
This case has resulted in a banning of the following products from sale throughout South Korean effective this week: iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, and iPad 2. The court ruled that each of these devices infringed on two of Samsung’s telecommunications patents. Meanwhile Samsung has been banned from selling the Galaxy S II as well as “other products” which have not yet been named specifically. These products have been banned due to the similarities they have to Apple’s solution for the display’s bounce-back ability – also known as the rubber band effect.
It’s not yet clear if this case will have any effect on the USA case currently being ruled upon by a jury. It would seem that because the jury is not allowed to hear anything pertaining to the case outside of the courtroom, that these two cases will remain unrelated, so to speak. Similar patents are being ruled upon in the case inside the USA.
Both Samsung and Apple will continue cases throughout the world into the future – at the moment there are several similar cases to this one still in session, with perhaps the most hard hitting being the USA-based case. The USA-based case has been the source for some rather interesting revelations over the past few weeks including showings of early models of now-popular devices and the ripping of both companies to shreds by the other – have a peek at some key moments in the timeline below.
[via AlJazeera]
iPhone and iPad banned in South Korea with Samsung GSII is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
When you travel the world, having a few drinks with your hosts is a great way to get a sense of the local culture. But excessive alcohol consumption can cause physiological consequences. Don’t worry—a hangover is universal, and your new friends probably already know a way to cope with it. More »
There may be a debate concerning which tablet between the third-gen iPad and the Galaxy Note 10.1 is the better choice for consumers, but when it comes to profit margins, IHS has found that Samsung is the clear winner. A preliminary teardown performed by IHS shows that Samsung is making a pretty healthy margin on the Galaxy Note 10.1, though the company warns that the figures in its report only represent the cost of manufacturing and hardware. This means that after things like licensing and marketing are accounted for, the profit margins on the Galaxy Note 10.1 could take a bit of a dip.
There’s plenty of room to breathe though, with the HSPA+ version of the Galaxy Note 10.1 sporting a bill of materials (BOM) that comes in at $283. The cost of manufacturing adds another $10 to that bill, bringing the total to $293. Samsung sells the HSPA+ Galaxy Note 10.1 for around $640, meaning that before marketing and all of those other expenses are tallied up, Samsung is making $347 on each tablet sold. Naturally, other expenses will bring that figure down – possibly significantly – but as we said above, Samsung has plenty of room to breathe with the HSPA+ version of the Galaxy Note 10.1.
Samsung’s other Galaxy Note 10.1, the Wi-Fi version, has a BOM of around $260, while Samsung is offering it at $499. By comparison, the BOM of the third-gen Wi-Fi iPad comes in at $316, with Apple selling the 16GB variety for the same price. This means that the Galaxy Note 10.1 beats out a similarly-specced iPad, but again, other non-hardware and manufacturing costs are likely to drive that margin down a bit. IHS says that Samsung can net these high profit margins because it uses a lot of the same components in the Galaxy Note 10.1 as it does in its other devices, so it can save on the purchase price of that hardware by buying large quantities at once.
This is pretty good news for Samsung, but IHS director of tablet and monitor research Rhoda Alexander says that Samsung may not be able to keep these profit margins up, pointing out that non-Apple tablet makers generally have a difficult time moving units at $499. Samsung may be forced to drop the price on the Galaxy Note 10.1 before long, and if it does, those profit margins will go bye-bye pretty quickly. Still, Samsung seems to have a tablet that’s catching consumer attention in the Galaxy Note 10.1, so it may not have to implement a price cut in order to get the tablet selling well. We shall see, but for now, these results from IHS provide some interesting statistics on the Galaxy Note 10.1′s manufacturing costs.
Galaxy Note 10.1 beats iPad in IHS teardown is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Since there aren’t any Star Trek The Next Generation episodes or movies being made, Paramount wanted to trash the set. A group of Trekkies is not going to let that happen. They took the old tattered pieces they were chucking out and have decided going to restore the whole bridge. I say, Make it so!
Rusty Harrell, Brian Uiga and Huston Huddleston have teamed up to restore the set which was recovered back in late 2011. Paramount had made it durably using Fiberglas and it survived for nearly 5 years during filming of the show, but had been all but forgotten about.
The team wants to take what he has and restore it to the closest recreation of the set as possible, with the help of some Hollywood professionals, and then go one better. They want to open the bridge to the public for meetings, movie showings, fundraisers, tours, filming, whatever. The project will start looking for funding soon. We will keep you up to date if we hear more. In the mean time, you can read more about the project here.
[via Blastr via Geeks are Sexy]
Russound makes speakers camouflaged as rocks to sit out by the pool at your mansion. Their tough outdoor products, it turns out, can also survive over five months on a Brooklyn fire escape. The sound might not be the greatest, and the product may be inelegant, absurd, and expensive, but the weird AirGo Outdoor Speaker is brutally tough and undeniably effective. More »
Having already conquered the general consumer market on multiple platforms, Evernote’s now taking its handy software tools to a more biz-oriented audience. Earlier today, the company proudly introduced Evernote Business, which, according to CEO Phil Libin, is “the same Evernote that’s great for individuals, except now it’s optimized so that you can use it in your small and medium-sized business environment.” The newfangled Evernote Business will be launching later this December, with the note-taking outfit accepting early applicants on its website as we speak. That’s not all the news, however, since Evernote’s also updated its iOS application for the second time during August; bringing page and multi-shot camera features to the mix, while faster download times and improved PDF support on iPads can also be found inside the fresh 4.4 version. You’ll find both the sign-up and download links gravitating below.
Continue reading Evernote introduces Evernote Business, updates iOS application to version 4.4
Filed under: Internet, Software
Evernote introduces Evernote Business, updates iOS application to version 4.4 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It would seem that Amazon’s newest internal mantra is “loose lips sink ships” as a propaganda poster – likely one of many – has been photographed and send in to the tech press the company is hoping to avoid. Send in to TechCrunch by what we must assume is an Amazon employee is this photo of a poster which shows a couple of lock-headed characters speaking about a Time Machine that Amazon will be releasing in the future – above them sits a thief/villain tech reporter who appears to have collected their secret speech and published it immediately thereafter. “A Secure Amazon Begins With YOU” encourages the poster.
This burglar is snapping photos from behind an e-reader you’ll all recognize and the “Tech Headlines” blog his work has been published in lets it be known that Q4 will be the place for the machine’s delivery. Amazon wants no such news to be released before they’re prepared to release it, of course, thus the poster was born. The poster also warns employees that they’re in for a world of hurt if they don’t recognize: “Who are you really talking to?”
Of course this poster also pops up right before a press event that’ll be taking place on the 6th of September in California. There we expect that we’ll be seeing at least one Amazon e-reader device of some kind or another as well as some updates to their online store initiatives. The poster all but confirms that we’ll be seeing more slate devices in the very near future, and makes it clear that a time machine will not be popping up in Q3, unfortunately.
Stay tuned as SlashGear keeps on the path of the next generation and Amazon attempts to stopper up all of their future leaks.
Amazon leaks tablet plans with propaganda poster is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week it appears that one developer fan of Nintendo’s hero series Mario has taken his love for the original to a whole new level – backwards. Atari Age forum member Sprybug has taken data from the original Super Mario Bros. from the original Nintendo Entertainment System and has begun transferring it backward into a game that very well could have been played on the Atari 2600. This gaming system pre-dates most young gamers entire lives by several years at least, and boasts graphics with pixels so large you’ll be in danger of cutting your finger on them – and now you can play Mario here, too!
With the 8-bit graphic universe shown in the original Mario Bros. game now transferred down, down, and down some more into a much more basic environment, one thing shines through the brightest: Mario was a breakthrough game. Not just because it was fun, but because the gameplay and the environments in the game were so advanced that they look good even when you strip the whole thing down to its most basic components.
In the video above you’ll see a gleefully old-school looking demonstration of the game with what should be some rather recognizable elements all around. The game has right around 16 levels re-created right this minute, and more are on the way. This game also currently exists entirely in a 32k file – amazing!
If you want to try the game out for yourself, you’ll need first to get yourself a Harmony Cartridge. This bit of hardware will plug in to your original Atari 2600 and allow you to play hundreds of pre-made games and classics without the hassle of actually going out and finding the games (which of course, are no longer produced today) themselves. And new games are being made here in 2012 as well – as evidenced by Mario!
The game is being shared right now by Sprybug so that you can tell him how awesome it is. Music and sound effects are included – and yes, you will be able to fire fireballs if you do become FireMario.
[via DVice]
Super Mario Clone World beats New titles with Atari graphics is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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