Hasta La Gadget!

Gorilla Glass 2 and a chassis forged from magnesium lend Microsoft’s Surface slates some durability, but the firm’s decided to prove just how tough its tablets are by turning one into a skateboard. The wheeled slice of Windows 8 is said to have been rolled out during a tour of Redmond’s Surface skunkworks, but Windows chief Steven Sinofksy couldn’t resist hopping on the board today and tweeting a pair of photos. You can pre-order your deck now, though something tells us this mod isn’t covered under Ballmer and Co.’s warranty.

Filed under: Microsoft

Microsoft turns Surface tablet into a skateboard, Windows chief Steven Sinofsky takes it for a spin originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have businesses been made to comply with more laws under President Barack Obama’s presidency? If you ask Mitt Romney, the answer is yes, but that may not be the whole story.

During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Romney criticized Obama’s approach to economic growth by deriding regulations created under the president.

“Regulations have quadrupled,” Romney said. “The rate of regulations quadrupled under this president.”

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Clearing up a landmine infested area is not exactly the dream job for most folks, considering the copious amount of risk involved while you are at work with no guarantee that you will be able to return home alive. Well, getting robots to do the job is an avenue worth exploring, but what happens when one could enlist the help of nature? Lab mice that have been genetically engineered by humans to sniff out TNT explosives could be the future, where such mice tout a sense of smell 500 times better than normal at detecting DNT, which is a chemical cousin of TNT, and they could be trained to alert their human masters to the presence of landmines, perhaps by falling down in an epileptic seizure.

Charlotte D’Hulst, a bioengineer at Hunter College, City University of New York, said, “Whatever their behavior is going to be, we think we will be able to track their change in behavior using a sort of microchip implanted under their skin that would indeed wirelessly report back to a computer.”

Since mice are smaller, a whole lot more affordable than employing a human and are a snap to breed, a bunch of these could get the job done simultaneously in a pack – and even better is the fact that mice are too light to trigger a landmine even if they are stepping on one. Known as the MouSensor Project, it is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: South Korea looks at suicidal attack drone, US Navy wants jets powered by seawater,

At a San Francisco launch event GoPro has just revealed the next addition to its line of action cameras, the Hero3. The Hero3 claims specs that are 30 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than its predecessor, with a resolution that’s up to 4x higher and it has WiFi included. The top of the line Black Edition (pictured above) is capable of capturing video at up to 4K res — if you’re willing to drop the framerate down to 15fps — however thanks to a processor it says is 2x faster, it has also doubled frame rates at lower resolutions. That means 1080p60, 1440p48 and 720p120 modes are supported for your super slow and still-HD capture needs. The Silver Edition maxes out at 11MP stills and 1080p30 video, while the White Edition drops down to 5MP stills. All three versions include WiFi (no BacPac necessary for remote control via the just-released-on-iOS app) however the Black edition includes a remote that can control up to 50 cameras at once with a 600ft range and is waterproof to 10 feet deep. It will also be available as a $79 accessory for the lesser versions.

As far as pricing, the Black Edition is $399, the Silver is $299 and the White $199. Pre-orders are scheduled to start at 12:01AM PT (3:01AM ET), and there’s a handy counter on the GoPro site if you otherwise might forget. The variety of models and ubiquitous WiFi may help fight off competition at the pricing low end like the new ContourROAM2, among others. Naturally we were in the house and will have hands-on pics and impressions soon, check the gallery for pics of the box and detailed specs.

Update: Our hands-on is live! Check out how tiny the Hero3 really is right here.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading GoPro’s new Hero3 is lighter, faster, higher res and has WiFi, comes in three flavors starting at $199

Filed under: Cameras

GoPro’s new Hero3 is lighter, faster, higher res and has WiFi, comes in three flavors starting at $199 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you have a bad habit of biting or chewing on your nails so much so that there is not enough nail surface left for you to remove a sticker from an apple or even scratch a ticket, you might have the impetus to change with the introduction of an “acoustic barcode”. Basically, a team of computer scientists developed a system which enables folks to scratch at specially notched patterns in order to glean information, or perhaps flip over to the next slide during a presentation, perform functions during a phone call, or indulge in other actions. The scratch pattern system is said to be extremely simple to set up and ready for use.

The implementation of “acoustic barcodes” really depends on just how one wants to get about it. A good example would be a working prototype of a talking store window that you see above, in addition to a talking wooden toy, several smartphone apps as well as magnetic shapes that an educator can stick to a whiteboard to control an in-classroom projector. The acoustic barcodes do not look too far removed from the printed variety, being made out of etched lines of varying thicknesses, and all you need to do to activate it would be to drag a fingernail or another tool over the lines. There will be a microphone that picks up the scratch’s sound, relaying it to a computer where the program figures out just what the original etched pattern was based on the sound. It can compensate for different swiping speeds to a certain extent, and is smart enough to ignore accidental taps.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: File sharers buy 30% more music than non-file sharers according to survey, Never paint a building ever again,