Hasta La Gadget!

If you quit play Diablo 3 because it got boring or because of the various bugs and imbalances that you feel ruined the game, you might be interested to learn that as of yesterday, patch 1.0.5 is available for download, so just fire up your Diablo 3 client to get your hands on it. What so significant about patch 1.0.5 that will make you want to play the game again? Well apart from the usual bug fixes and whatnot, the latest patch will be introducing a host of new features to the game, such as Monster Power that allows players to control the difficulty of the game (similar to the “/players” command in Diablo 2), a new event called Infernal Machine that lets players fight souped up versions of some of Diablo 3’s bosses, along with a host of other changes. It sounds like an interesting patch and we’re not sure if it will be enough to bring players back or to keep current players interested, but either way if you’ve got some time to spare and want to see what’s new, head on over to the Diablo 3 blog (source link below) for the details.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Diablo 3 patch 1.0.5 arriving on October 16th, Diablo 3 PvP features uncovered in datamined game client,

There were rumors that suggested that Apple will unveil the iPad mini at an event on the 23^rd of October. Well it seems like those rumors have panned out as according to Joanna Stern at ABC News, Apple has sent out the invites to the event already (pictured above). As you can see, the tag line reads “We’ve got a little more to show you”, and as many have speculated, the key word in that tag line is “little” which we assume that it refers to the iPad mini. Apart from the rumored iPad mini, Apple is also expected to introduce other new products, which may or may not include a 13” Retina MacBook Pro, a refreshed and redesigned iMac, and an updated Mac Mini with Intel Ivy Bridge processors. In any case we guess all will be revealed next week, so check back with us then for the updates! In the meantime you can read our iPad mini rumor roundup for an idea of what you can expect.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple to have two dozen iPad models soon (iPad mini included), Alleged iPad mini battery photo surfaces, reveals 4,490mAh battery,

GoPro, the Half Moon Bay-based camera company that’s etched out a very big niche for itself in action sports, just unveiled its latest line-up of Hero cameras.

The company, which just turned 10 years old last week, has come a long way from its very lowly beginnings making camera straps for surfers. They’ve sold 3 million cameras since late 2009, when the company had about a dozen employees (virtually all of whom were either related to or went to high school with GoPro’s founder Nick Woodman).

“We started out helping surfers share their love of the ocean,” said Woodman, a surfer who studied visual arts and is pictured below. “Now we’re the fastest growing camera company globally. What we’ve found is that the world is really full of all of these passionate people who want to capture and share their experiences.”

To give you an idea of what it can shoot, here’s a video the company filmed entirely with Hero3 cameras (and yes, it is completely captivating).

So what’s new? The top model, the HERO3 Black Edition, is 30 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than the HERO2 with a $399.99 price tag. Its image processor is twice as fast, and the camera can capture 4k video at 15 frames per second, 2.7k video at 30 frames per second.

It’s three times as fast at photo capture and can do up to 12 megapixels for still photos with burst shots of 30 frames per second. “It’s actually almost too fast,” Woodman said.

Wi-fi is now built into every GoPro from the top-end model on all the way to the HERO3 “White Edition,” which Woodman says to basically think of as a souped up HERO1. There’s a middle-range offering, called the “Silver Edition”, which is basically like a HERO2 plus Wi-fi.

They also improved on sound recording with this version. “It could handle motor sports with reduced noise, but we’ll admit that the HERO2 came up a little short when it came to capturing your latest guitar jam or people’s voices,” Woodman said.

They company has also upgraded all of its companion software on smartphones and tablets. GoPro’s apps can control the cameras, and preview and share content on the web.

Instead of cannibalizing the company’s core business as smartphones have with Kodak and other venerable camera brands, smartphones have actually helped GoPro, Woodman argues. He says that now that consumers don’t have to spend money on a basic point-and-shoot, they can consider alternatives that really have something special to offer.

“[The smartphone] is our friend,” he said. “People are no longer buying traditional cameras because they’re looking for differentiated ways of capturing their life experiences proactively instead than reactively with their phones. These guys have actually helped us clear the landscape from a competitive point of view, freeing people’s minds and dollars to capture their active lifestyles.”

However, Woodman doesn’t want the company to stay confined to surfing, race car driving or base jumping. He sees GoPro as a way for people to share passionate, life experiences. To wit, he even showed footage of the birth of his son to room full of press in announcing the HERO3 tonight. Plus, the GoPro footage he’s most proud of at the moment is not of heli-skiing. It’s a video that captures his infant son’s facial expressions while on a bike with Woodman for the very first time.

GoPro is actually Woodman’s third company after the last one, a web marketing company, flamed out in the original dot-com bust. After going on a half-year, round-the-world recovery trip involving lots of surfing, he became determined to find an effective way to film himself out in the ocean. It started with camera straps, but then Woodman soon realized he would need to get into actually building cameras.

After finding a trustworthy supplier in China, a real inflection point came for the company when it switched from film to digital. Many seismic, industry-changing shifts have coincidentally helped GoPro along the way. Woodman jokes that the company has slipped on a “banana peel of luck” countless times.

The emergence of YouTube and Facebook helped GoPro find a passionate community of supporters without needing to pay for mainstream marketing until later. Before they ever showed up in Best Buy stores, GoPro already had scores of dedicated surfing and racing customers. Footage like this video of some skiiers escaping an avalanche or this NSFW video of hula hoopers at Burning Man have attracted millions of views and fans.

“We’re the 10-year overnight success,” Woodman said. That momentum is now attracting rival products from hardware makers like JVC and Sony. But the thing is that the vast majority of GoPro’s actual sales are through smaller, action sports-oriented retailers, which would require a network of relationships and the kind of brand loyalty that’s hard for a giant, lumbering hardware maker to copy.

Still, to protect itself against much bigger competitors, GoPro did raise a venture round of undisclosed size last year. Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Riverwood Capital, Sageview Capital, Walden International and US Venture Partners participated.

Are you a hardcore adventurer who wants nothing better than feel adrenaline course through your veins while your family and insurance agent cringe? Well, if you’ve answered in the affirmative, you might want to check out the GoPro Hero3 which should be made as a staple purchase for all adrenaline junkies. This video recorder is as hardcore as you, and its latest iteration ends up 70% the size and 75% the weight of its predecessor, without compromising on performance. We are looking at a resolution that’s up to 4x higher, while throwing in Wi-Fi connectivity.

The high end model would be the Black Edition that does capture video at up to 4K res, at the expense of framerate which drops to 15fps of course, although the internal processor makes it twice faster while doubling frame rates at lower resolutions. The Silver Edition will max out at 11-megapixel stills and 1080p video at 30fps, while the most affordable of the lot, the White Edition, will shoot 5-megapixel stills. All three models come with Wi-Fi connectivity, although the Black Edition comes with a remote control which lets you control up to 50 cameras simultaneously within a range of 600 feet. You can pick up the Black Edition, Silver Edition and White Edition for $399, $299 and $199, respectively.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: GoPro Dive Housing announced, Kids Send 3D GoPro Cameras Into Space; Astonishing Footage Recorded,

All right, your eyes might go a little bit bonkers there, but what we are trying to do is draw your attention to the Sharp Aquos Pad SHT21. It carries the new IGZO LCD technology from Sharp, and according to Japanese carrier KDDI, the Sharp Aquos Pad SHT21 is tipped to debut this coming middle of December, where the 7” tablet is touted to come with more than double the battery life of its predecessor. How is this possible? Definitely not through the sprinkling of pixie dust or fooling around with magic, but rather, it is due to the low-power characteristics of its IGZO LCD display.

The entire shebang tips the scales at a mere 280 grams, where it runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 processor, offers pen input capability, has 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a microSDXC memory card slot, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and 4G LTE connectivity. Oh yeah, your eyes will be treated to a resolution of 1280 x 800, not quite near the HTC J Butterfly, but decent enough. [Product Page]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sharp 6.1-inch IGZO display has 498ppi, WQXGA resolution, Expert claims Apple used older display technology in their new iPads as Sharp’s IGZO displays weren’t ready yet,