Hasta La Gadget!

For the past year or so, Vonage has been adding to its international VoIP game, and the latest new feature is roaming. That’s right, the company’s iOS and Android apps will soon have Vonage Mobile Roaming, meaning folks can take all their incoming calls over WiFi wherever they go without fear of ringing up a ridiculous cellphone bill. The catch? The service is in its trial phase and you’ve gotta reside in the UK, Netherlands, Spain or Italy to take advantage of this frugal feature. Those interested (and eligible) can sign up to get in on the action at the source below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Vonage mobile apps get international roaming, let users chat for free on both sides of the border originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Field Day’s gorgeous Envelope Chest borrows its design from the classic interoffice envelope. Made of smooth maple with a satin lacquer finish, this simple storage chest closes with a simple leather tie. More »

A few months back, robot/toy designer Jaimie Mantzel showed off an early prototype of a six-legged robot toy that looked pretty damned awesome. He announced at the time that he was working on it so a production version could eventually be made, and now we can see the final build in action!

The first of the six-legged robots in the new Combat Creatures line-up is dubbed Attacknid (despite not having eight legs like a spider, but I don’t care.) The final version of the robot measures 10 inches-tall, and can fire foam projectiles up to 30 feet from its 360° rotating head. You can choose from three different weapons, including foam “Dissector Discs” (included), or upgrade with “Snyper Darts” or “Destroyer Spheres.” Despite not seeing pics of them yet, those all sound awesome to me.

Check out Jaimie showing some of the first Attacknids off the assembly line in the video clip below…

Of course, the entire thing can be controlled remotely, and the 2.4GHz wireless communication supports up to FORTY robots in simultaneous battle! Oh, and if you hit your opponents armor directly it “explodes” off of its legs – and three direct hits shuts down the other ‘bot cold. And from the looks of the video clip, you can swap out colored skins on your ‘bot too.

Oh, and its designer is encouraging hacks and mods, as is proven by this freakishly awesome, illuminated Attacknid somebody already put together:

The Attacknid Combat Creature is available for pre-order now for £69.99 (~$112 USD) for delivery in the U.S. and the UK, though only the UK will get their orders in 2012. That price includes the Attacknid robot in black, a red skin set, the remote control, Disector weapon, 20 foam Dissector discs, and various other bits and bobs. No word yet on how much the add-on weapons and skins will sell for.

R2-D2 has done many important things in his life. He carried the Death Star plans, befriended Luke, befriended Anakin before him (sure, whatever.) and even likes to ride in an X-Wing Fighter now and then. And now he is performing his most important task. Serving up beer to over-enthusiastic sports fans.

R2 can be seen in the accompanying image playing bartender at a tailgating party at the LSU vs. Washington football game.

They must have been drinking while they were making this Astromech droid, because his dome was painted purple and gold (LSU’s team colors.) He also has a bow tie. The main thing is that he is willing to serve up beer as long as you don’t mind putting some dollars into the tip jar.

[via Geekosystem via Obvious Winner]

Most of the time, we see smartphone manufacturers marketing their devices toward young adults. That may all be changing soon, as a new Nielsen report says that teenage smartphone owners are growing faster than any other age group in the United States. Nielsen posted the results of a July 2012 study today, in which it found that 58% of teenagers aged 13 to 17 now claim to own a smartphone.

That’s up from only 36% who claimed they owned a smartphone in July 2011, so we’re seeing some pretty significant growth there. Of course, teenagers have a ways to go before catching up to young adults aged 25 to 34, as 74% of them say they own a smartphone. Still, teenagers are by far the leaders in “smartphone adoption,” so it may not be long before we see teenagers overtake young adults as far as smartphone ownership goes.

As for smartphone sales overall, it doesn’t come as much of a shock to hear that Android is still in the lead. As of this July 2012 study, 51.8% of smartphone owners were using an Android handset, and three month acquisitions for Android were sitting at 58.6%. Apple is still in a strong second place position, with 34.3% of all smartphone users owning a handset running iOS and 33% of three month acquirers going for an iPhone over the competition. Once again, BlackBerry is slipping, with only 8% of smartphone owners rocking a BlackBerry handset, and only a measly 2.7% of three month acquirers opting for a BlackBerry smartphone.

Smartphone adoption in general grew too, with 55.8% of mobile subscribers now using a smartphone instead of a feature phone. That’s hardly a surprise though, considering that we don’t see too many advertisements for feature phones these days. What do you think of Nielsen’s latest snapshot of US smartphone users? Are you surprised to see that smartphone adoption among teenagers is growing as quick as it is?

Number of teenage smartphone owners jumps year-over-year, claims Nielsen is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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