Hasta La Gadget!

With only a week to go, it’s getting to be too late to start building your own really complex costume for Halloween. But if you happen to have $9,000 kicking around, and happen to live in Phoenix, AZ, you might still be able to pull off the best costume of the year.

This spectactular handmade Transformers Bumblebee costume is for sale up on Etsy. It was built by Travis Culling of AZCostumes, and measures 9.5-feet-tall. It’s comprised of 7 pieces, including a pair of drywall stilts in the legs to help make you taller. Bumblebee is constructed mostly out of wood, flexible foam and latex paint, and even has working LED lights and headlights for showing off at night.

It’s even got a working flamthrower in one of the hands, powered by butane and capable of shooting flames 3 to 4 feet. Here it is standing alongside his pal Optimus Prime, in case you had any doubts that this was a real Autobot.

This one-of-a-kind costume is available over on Etsy for the low-low price of just $9,000 (USD). And if you don’t live in Phoenix, you can have it shipped for $250. I just don’t think you’ll get it in time for Halloween.

Smartphone cameras aren’t designed for fine photography. But you still need a tripod now and then, to hold a phone for a family photo or keep a shot steady in the dark. Here’s a nifty solution from Joby, maker of the mighty GorrillaPod flexible tripods. More »

The upcoming smartphone from LG will carry the Nexus brand name with it, where it is more or less known to the masses that it will be called the Nexus 4. Well, there were leaks of the handset in the past, but what we have here today would be a press render of the Nexus 4, hailing from the folks over at @evleaks who have been pretty spot on with other leaks in the past of different handsets. The press render does seem to have replaced the “with Google” on the phone’s rear end with the Nexus logo, which is a decent substitute in our eyes.

Of course, there are others who firmly believe that unless an official image is released, everything else from now till then should be taken with a grain of salt. Being a little bit more patient would more or less do the trick here, considering how Google’s event is happening in less than a week’s time where far more information will be revealed, including that of the LG Nexus 4. Hopefully this smartphone will not be as underwhelming as recent gadget releases.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nexus 4 benchmarked confirms Android 4.2, Nexus 4 could come in 16GB flavor after all,

Apple announced a new iPad at its event on Tuesday, one that wasn’t mini, and one that wasn’t presented as a a stop-gap or mid-cycle replacement. The fourth generation iPad, as it’s called, was pitched as a full-fledged successor to the “new iPad” introduced in March 2012, which has some people understandably confused and frustrated. So why the change, why now, and what does it mean for Apple’s iPad upgrade cycle going forward?

Here’s the main issue that is likely causing some iPad 3 owners a lot of grief: The iPad has, until now, enjoyed a fairly regular upgrade rhythm, with new models coming out once annually. That means you can feel relatively secure when you buy an iPad that it will be current, or “best” for at least another 12 months. Knowing that feels good. It provides a sense of justification to big ticket purchases, a relief that you’re good for another year.

When Apple updates products earlier than they usually do, as they did with this iPad, that complicates things. Even though there’s no actual agreement that Apple will keep things stable for at least another calendar year, people feel a tacit contract has been breached.

Of course, when you’re talking tech, obsolescence is the one certainty. No matter what users may feel is guaranteed, the truth is that the only guarantee is that they’ll feel outdated at some point or another. Changing the iPad now may bug some customers, but it also helps Apple get all its devices onboard the lightning train, and expand LTE coverage to more worldwide markets, both of which have real, long-term bottom line benefits.

This iPad update isn’t even a particularly bad case. Based on my brief hands-on experience with it, it feels functionally the same as the iPad it replaces: I didn’t even think it merited a hands-on post, since essentially I’d just have one sentence to say about the Lightning dock connector. Will the A6X eventually become a factor, as developers create more processor-intensive apps and games for it? Maybe, but even that’s still a question mark.

So while I, like others, am actually personally feeling the pain of having an old device I thought would be current for at least another few months, I suspect we’ll all get over it pretty quickly. And then the more exciting question takes center stage: How does Apple update the iPad going forward?

Does it stick to a new October annual refresh, in time for the holidays? That seems unlikely, since it bunches up Apple’s top sellers in pretty close proximity on the fiscal calendar, and could make for a revenue lull during the summer months. So does it instead release another update this spring, with more dramatic changes? That’s certainly a possibility. Or we could see the iPad become the new marquee device for WWDC keynotes, taking the iPhone’s place and providing an early summer spike in consumer excitement.

In the end, this adds a bit of the unknown back into Apple’s relatively predictable routine, and that’s more interesting than sulking over buyer’s remorse for a product that’s still near enough the top of the tablet game.

As with all new Apple devices, we’re expecting consumers to throw their money at the company once the iPad Mini goes up for pre-order later this week. Even though Apple is boosting the number of suppliers its working with to produce the iPad Mini, at least one analyst is expecting there to be a stock shortage once the new tablet launches. Better get those pre-orders in early, lest they run out fast and you end up waiting a month before Apple has more to sell.

DiaplySearch analyst Richard Shim writes in a new Analyst Blog post that he expects stock to be tight for the both the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad, but is expecting the iPad Mini’s stock to be particularly slim thanks to its lower price and issues with Apple’s panel supply chain. “The new low price point is expected to appeal to a wider audience and drive up demand,” Shim said. “However, panel supply chain indications point to an even more than typical tightness in the market for the iPad Mini.”

Apple’s recently-soured relationship with Samsung may be partially to blame for the whatever shortages the iPad Mini experiences, considering that Samsung used to be one of Apple’s biggest display suppliers. Apple may be moving away from Samsung, but it has taken some measures to expand its supplier base. Apple will be relying on LG to produce displays for the iPad Mini, but the company has also brought on AUO, which unfortunately is experiencing issues with yields in its 7.9-inch displays.

Shim writes that AUO was only able to get 100,000 displays out the door in September due to these problems with yields – a far cry from the 400,000 it plans to produce this month, the 800,000 its shooting for in November, and the quota of one million its expected to reach in December. Given all of that, it’s no wonder that Shim is expecting an iPad Mini shortage, so if you want one at launch, it might be a good idea to get your pre-order in as early as possible once October 26 rolls around.

iPad Mini shortage likely at first, warns analyst is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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