Hasta La Gadget!

With Apple this week becoming the most valuable public company in the history of the world, word that their own Apple Store outlets are doing fantastic as well seemed inevitable. As Jim Dalrymple of The Loop reports he’s spoken with Apple about, their stores have had almost 300 million visitors worldwide inside their fiscal 2012 year. That year begins in October 2011 and, of course, isn’t quite ofter yet.

This amount of visitors, also noted by Dalrymple, is nearly the population of the United States according to last year’s census. Apple Stores across the globe are bringing in more than five times the revenue per square foot that Best Buy did in 2011 according to CNET, and the store’s unique point in the Genius Bar has some impressive numbers of its own as well. Apple notes that 50,000 people get serviced at the Genius Bar in their Apple stores every single day.

Many Apple stores have what the company notes is over 100 “unique hands-on opportunities” with products such as the iPad, iPhone, iPods of all kinds, and Mac computers as well. With Apple’s extended line of associated brands in speakers, printers, accessories, and the like, the company provides a full experience to the average computer-loving customer. Apple’s newest stores have just opened in Canada, the total number now reaching 375 worldwide.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on recent events in and around Apple Stores across the globe. Apple continues to grow to be one gigantic company with their own retail storefront, manufacturing, software, and support services as well.

Apple Stores tout 300 million visitors in less than a year is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of the cool technologies from the Iron Man movies is the computerized take on the Avengers’ butler Jarvis. The Ubi computer can’t be sarcastic and exchange witty banter, but it might be the closest we can get to Tony Stark’s A.I. servant.

Ubi – short for Ubiquitous Computer – is an Android 4.0-based personal assistant device that docks into a power outlet. Similar to Apple’s Siri, you can ask Ubi to search the Internet for information, call someone on your contacts list, record memos, set alarms etc. But the Ubi has a much greater potential than its iPhone-constrained cousin, mainly because of its open platform and its hardware (which might allow for it to be sarcastic and witty some day.)

The Ubi has an 800MHz ARM CPU, 1GB RAM, RF, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port, temperature, humidity, air pressure and ambient light sensors. It also has more ways to communicate compared to Siri. Aside from its synthesized voice, Ubi also has different colored lights and can even be set to send emails and text messages.

Pledge at least $189 (USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser to reserve a Ubi unit. Now someone needs to do a Kickstarter project for Tony Stark’s armor.

[via Werd]

The future of Motorola post-acquisition may still be a mystery, but the manufacturer has managed to stay quite active over the last few weeks: it unveiled the Atrix HD, its first smartphone with an HD display and native ICS build, and there’s already much anticipation around Verizon’s Droid RAZR HD ahead of the holiday season. For the here and now, however, it’s Sprint’s turn to soak in the Moto love with the Photon Q 4G LTE. (Say it five times fast.)

Naturally, the name of the phone doesn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination. As you’d expect, it’s a follow-up to last year’s Photon 4G that trades WiMAX for LTE and adds a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. What the name doesn’t tell you, though, is that this phone costs a lofty $200 on contract, and features a qHD ColorBoost display (not to be confused with the Atrix’s 720p screen, which uses the same branding). In other words, it’s gotta be pretty good to have any success at that price point. How does the latest Googorola device hold up against the rest of Sprint’s LTE lineup? Is it worth the premium? Follow us southward to find out.

Continue reading Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review: the best full QWERTY phone on Sprint’s network

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review: the best full QWERTY phone on Sprint’s network originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you happen to live in New York, then you would know that this city which never sleeps has its fair share of colorful characters, and among them would be this “Who’s Your Daddy” truck with Jared Rosenthal as the driver. As its name suggests, Rosenthal will charge anywhere from $299 to $575 for a paternity test, settling the answer once and for all to the question asked by bruised egos as well as suspicious minds, “Who is the kid’s parent?”

Rosenthal said, “It’s heartbreak hotel. It’s really, really tough sometimes. It’s just drama, a lot of drama. You see a man come in with a baby. You see them together and you just hope that he’s the father.” Those who have engaged Rosenthal’s services are able to receive the results in person, or have the choice to do so via mail. Now this is truly a novel idea, and so far Rosenthal has had his fair share of heartwarming as well as heartbreaking stories, making this one of the more emotional businesses you could run – apart from wedding planners and funeral directors, I suppose.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Proteus digestible microchips, Artificial jellyfish uses rat cells as its building blocks,

The official Google Play store for digital media such as apps, music, and books, has been given a collection of real-life gift cards. This set of gift cards appears in $10, $25, and $50 denominations, and is able to be used on digital media only – no hardware or accessory purchases here! These gift cards will be available immediately if not soon at RadioShack, Target, and GameStop.

The gift cards you’re seeing here are made available by Google for those of you looking to grab your kid, sibling, friend, or associate something simple and relatively free of commitment. Just like the iTunes gift cards that’ve been appearing in holiday gift cards for years now, the Google Play gift card line is set to be a giant force in holiday gift giving. In other words, Apple will be making a double-effort from now on to make sure they’ve got rack space above Google’s new offering.

These gift cards are able to purchase songs, movies, and TV shows instantly from the Google Play store online or through your Android-toting device. You can also purchase Android apps as well as eBooks galore from Google’s vast library of titles. These cards work to not only rent movies and TV shows, but to buy them as well – but purchases of TV shows and movies only work on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean devices so far – so watch out for that!

These cards are set to appear at the three retailers listed soon – they may already be in stores if you’re lucky! Google adds, once again, that “Google Play gift cards cannot be redeemed for Android app subscriptions, magazine subscriptions, or hardware and accessory purchases. Refer to the Google Play Gift Card Terms and Conditions for more details. Content subject to availability by country.” Remember that bit!

[via Google]

Google Play gift cards hit Target, GameStop, and RadioShack is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.