Hasta La Gadget!

Time loving watch wearers: here’s a watch you can wear that’ll prove your timeliness twice as much as an ordinary watch because it has not one, but two faces. Yes, one face is for the hour hand and the other is for the minute hand. More »

Those Chinese manufacturers sure know how to quickly copy what’s available or popular and pump out cheap devices — especially tablets. What we have here is a popular Chinese tablet manufacturer, Cube, showing off their new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean powered tablet that also rocks a “retina” like 9.7-inch display.

Cube was the first tablet maker to release a tablet with the Rockchip RK3066 dual-core processor way back when dual-core tablets were a rarity, and today they’ve done the same with their new U9GT5 Retina Display Android tablet. This sleek little tablet rocks a similar 2048 x 1536 resolution display as the new iPad (iPad 3), which offers the same 264 pixels per inch as the all new iPad — although surely this won’t cost as much.

Under the hood however is where the large differences are. For one you’ll be enjoying the latest and greatest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean by Google, but the internal specs aren’t all that great. It uses the same aging Rockhip RK3066 1.6 GHz dual-core processor, manages 1GB of RAM, and comes with 8GB of internal storage. While that all sounds relatively nice, it certainly won’t be up to par with most tablets from Apple, Samsung, or ASUS.

It’s safe to say this tablet won’t be getting purchased by us anytime soon, but most likely they’ll be plastered across eBay in the usual Chinese knock-off tablet fashion we’ve seen for years. Pricing on the 8 and 16GB models weren’t made available but most likely they’ll be cheap. Would you buy this, or just opt for the Nexus 7 or upcoming iPad Mini?

[via Liliputing]

Cube U9GT5 Android Jelly Bean tablet touts iPad Retina display is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Considering the recent glut of smartphone announcements, news of yet another Galaxy S III variant shouldn’t have you tittering with glee. But for those of you tied to MetroPCS and hankering for a beastly mobile option, that 4.8-inch handset is almost ready to ship. Shown off at the carrier’s booth here at Pepcom, the designed by nature device is virtually unchanged, save for branding on the back that nods to the 4G network it runs on. Otherwise, it’s the same TouchWizzed Android ICS experience we’ve come to know and love. There’s no official word on pricing or a concrete release date — outside of a very vague end of Q4 bow. But still, if you want to take a sneak peek at this off-contract option, check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy S III for MetroPCS hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy S III for MetroPCS hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile phones are making a lot of things obsolete – payphones, maps, privacy – because of cheap and easy to use apps. A new open source technology might add keys – and keychains, and locksmiths – to the cellphone hit list. Called LibeTech, the system enables QR codes to be used as door keys.

LibeTech was developed by Jeremy Blum and 3 other students from Cornell during their senior year. The system is very simple to use. Say you have a hotel reservation. All you have to do is go to a website, log in and the hotel will send you a QR code.

When you get to your room, just show the QR code to the webcam at the door and you’re in. You don’t even need to own the latest smartphone to do this; any phone or gadget that can store and show the image of the code will suffice.

Of course, the convenience is a double-edged sword: someone could easily take a copy of your code. Imagine keys to entire hotels being shared on torrent sites. After much thought and consultation with fellow nerds, Blum and his colleagues have decided to make their technology open source instead of building a commercial product based around it. If you want to modernize your doors, head to Blum’s website for more details and links to the necessary code.

[via Hack A Day]

Anyone who follows video game news knows that there is never any shortage of Half-Life 3 rumors, but this one probably takes the cake as far as extravagant claims go. French gaming site Le Journal du Gamer (via International Business Times) has spoken to an anonymous source close to Valve who claims to have some surprising information on the development of Half-Life 3. According to this source, development on Half-Life 3 has been restarted several times, with Valve’s latest attempt at getting it right going in a completely different direction.

Apparently, Valve has decided to toss in some open world elements with Half-Life 3. Inspired by other games like Skyrim and Fallout, Half-Life 3 will feature NPCs that give the player quests to complete and a sandbox world to wander around in. No, we’re not kidding – this is what the latest rumor claims.

According to the source, the game won’t release until sometime after 2013, which suggests an early 2014 release date for Half-Life 3. That’s a little easier to believe, as are the whispers that claim Half-Life 3 is currently in development. We’re a little hesitant to believe that Half-Life 3 will come offering open world elements, however, as open world has never really been Valve’s style.

Who knows though? Perhaps Valve has truly decided that it’s time for a change. The studio has already mastered the linear FPS, so maybe the developers at Valve are looking for a new challenge and have decided that Half-Life 3 would be the perfect way to test out the idea of an open world. As hard as it is to believe, an open world Half-Life could be pretty cool, but we’re still not convinced that Valve has taken development in that direction. What do you think? Would you like to see an open world Half-Life game, or would you prefer it if Half-Life 3 was more like its predecessors in terms of gameplay?

Half-Life 3 has reportedly become an open world game is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.