Hasta La Gadget!

The point of shopping online is because it is possibly cheaper and more convenient, which is why we have to wonder what is the point of launching actual physical retail stores without any products in them. This is what Chinese e-commerce company, Yihaodian, has decided to do when they revealed that they will be launching 1,000 supermarkets around China that do not actually stock any physical product, but rather show the images of the product along with a QR code that can be scanned and used to buy the items, which will then be delivered to homes.

We’re not sure if this will be useful or simply a novel concept, but it is not the first time it has come up. Yihaodian has already done something similar on a smaller scale by sticking up posters in subway and bus stations, while in South Korea, Tesco has launched something similar where customers can shop for groceries at the subway while waiting for their trains. Interesting concept what do you guys think? Does it make sense to go to a brick and mortal store to scan buy items and wait for them to be delivered, when you can do that and take them home with you straight away at a normal supermarket?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Wonderbra Decoder reveals more than meets the eye, Nano-code puts counterfeiters on the backpedal,

I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of the Jovian Trojans before. It sounds like some sort of high school football team, but the name actually refers to asteroids that circle the sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. Scientists have been studying these asteroids using data generated by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer or WISE. NASA says that the Jovian Trojans travel in packs with one group of asteroids ahead of Jupiter and the other group behind Jupiter.

The observations made using WISE are the first that have offered a detailed look at the color of the Trojans in the leading and trailing packs. The data determined that the Jovian Trojans are made up predominantly of dark, reddish rocks with a matte, non-reflective surface. The observations also allowed astronomers to confirm previous suspicions that the leading pack of Jovian Trojans was larger than the trailing pack.

The scientists are trying to determine more than simply what the asteroids look like, they want to know where the asteroids came from. WISE data shows that the asteroids are strikingly similar with no interlopers from other parts of the solar system. The Jovian Trojans also don’t resemble asteroids from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The scientists say that the Jovian Trojans don’t resemble asteroids from the Kuiper belt family of objects near Pluto either. The first Jovian Trojan was discovered in February 22, 1906 by German astronomer named Max Wolf. This particular Trojan was called Achilles and is roughly 220 miles wide. The scientists are still unsure exactly how many asteroids are included in the two packs of Jovian Trojans, but they believe there are as many objects in the two packs as there are in the entirety of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The scientists have proposed future space mission to study the Jovian Trojans and gather data needed to determine how old they are and where the asteroids came from.

NASA Wide-field Infrared Explorer reveals the color of Jovian Trojans is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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What you see here is a mock-up provided by an Shenzhen-based accessories manufacturer who is planning to build cases and hardware for the iPad Mini. Although they will most likely be wrong about the specifics, the mock-up is a fairly clean representation of what we should expect out of Cupertino later this month.

Mockups like these – and like the physical ones we’ve already seen – are usually made before impending launches to allow designers to experiment with sizes and colors of upcoming products. This, in turn, allows them to launch their products as quickly as possible because their designers will already have some understanding of the shape and size of the device.

Quite obviously this isn’t the real iPad Mini, so don’t go canceling your Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD order just yet. However, it is a very close approximation based on all of the leaks we’ve seen so far and, more important, the relationships this manufacturer already has with parts suppliers in Shenzhen. It’s also interesting to note that these manufacturers are already flogging their wares at resellers in preparation for the launch. It’s wild that the Apple product ecosystem is such a well-oiled machine dedicated, in short, to outguessing Apple.

Redmond is getting ready to go to war, tablet war against iOS and Android — with the looming launch of its Windows 8-powered Surface slate, due to get the final reveal on October 25. Yesterday Microsoft ramped up the marketing blitz with a new Windows 8 commercial. Today it’s pushed the button on Surface banner ads (h/t to the Verge for spotting). Now the Wall Street Journal says Microsoft has ordered between three and five million Surface tablets from its Asian component suppliers for Q4 — ramping up to similar order volumes as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7 tablets.

The paper cites two people familiar with the situation confirming that mass manufacturing of the Surface tablets began earlier this month. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for an official comment and will update with any response  Microsoft responded with ‘no comment’.

The Surface tablet has a 10.6 inch display, is 9.3mm thick and includes a built-in kickstand so it can be paired with a detachable keyboard cover to take on the form factor of a laptop. Price and availability for the device have not yet been announced but the large format tablet looks to be lining up against the iPad at the high end of the slate spectrum, rather than the lower end alongside smaller form factor slates such as Google’s affordable Nexus 7 (and a possible iPad mini).

Apple’s iPad tablet has done well in the traditional Microsoft stronghold of the enterprise — while Windows-powered tablet hardware has struggled to compete against the iPad. Microsoft’s decision to get back into the hardware-making business with the Surface tablet underlines how important the mobile category has become as desktop PC sales continue to decline.

Update: Microsoft briefly outted Surface prices today. The Surface looks like it will start at $499 for an entry-level 32GB version without the Touch Cover with integrated touch-sensitive keyboard, while a top of the line 64GB version with the touch cover included costs $699.

Tokyo Flash is the go-to watch brand for people who don’t care what time it is. Here’s its latest creation, which hides the time in the negative space of a maze. More »