Hasta La Gadget!

A few weeks ago, Wacom started shipping a new version of its Cintiq 24HD pen display for creative pros that first broke from cover last September. The appropriately named Cintiq 24HD touch carries virtually the same outer styling as the OG model. An ergonomic base still cradles the massive 24-inch screen and can be configured to your particular seating preference. On the inside, though, there’s a host of changes. As the name suggests, the major difference between the two is the addition of multi-touch controls to the more recent offering. However, the added functionality does come with a pretty hefty price tag, as the Cintiq 24HD touch costs $1,100 more than its elder sibling. Are the additions of touch gestures and an improved display panel enough to justify forking over the extra coin, or will the less expensive option work just fine in a studio setting? Read on to find out as we tackle that very question.

Continue reading Wacom Cintiq 24HD touch review: the pen-enabled display tacks on multi-touch gestures

Filed under: Displays, Peripherals

Wacom Cintiq 24HD touch review: the pen-enabled display tacks on multi-touch gestures originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Oct 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

For those of you not already watching the live video feed of the Felix Baumgartner jump from space down to the planet in a Red Bull stunt for the record books, now’s a good time to start – he’s jumped! This jump had been cancelled earlier in the week due to weather conditions then postponed for the same reason, here working with conditions that allow the jump to go on optimally (so far) straight down from 120,000 feet / 36,576 meters above the ground. If all goes as planned, this mission will break more than one world record, and will be more than just a little bit of a good PR bit for the Red Bull brand.

This mission will (or already has, depending on when you’re reading this) break the record for the first human to break the sound barrier in freefall. That’s a fabulous 690 miles / 1,110 kilometers per hour straight down without any propulsion other than gravity, incase you did not know. It’s already a record-breaker right as Baumgartner exited the craft he was lifted up in as this becomes the highest skydive in recorded history. Not that anyone wouldn’t have recorded such a jump, of course.

You can watch the live feed of this event above, or you can watch the computer generated rendering of the event below. Red Bull made certain to show the event in more than way so that people across the earth could understand the epic nature of it all. Now that the jump has been initiated, Red Bull has only to cross their fingers and hope that it all goes well – Red Bull will be a drink that people will be downing for generations at this!

This mission is just one of several such jumps that’ve been made by Baumgartner in the past in collaboration with Red Bull. This man also did a skydive across the English Channel and dia a BASE jump from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro – if that doesn’t make you feel like the drink gives you wings, nothing else will. Of course if you weren’t convinced then, today’s record breaker – breaking a record 50 years old, mind you – really should.

What do you think? Are you more enticed to believe in the Red Bull brand now that a man has jumped from space? Let us know!

Red Bull Stratos supersonic skydive live: Felix is falling! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A while back I came across some cool Portal-inspired earrings, but they weren’t exactly the kind of thing you could wear out to a nice dinner. These, on the other hand, would look lovely no matter what the occasion.

These handmade sterling silver Portal earrings from jewelry artist Melissa Hamming show the familiar test subject symbol dude going in one of your ears and out the other. I bet that Cave Johnson’s assistant Caroline wore a pair of these before she was turned into GLaDOS (and then into a potato.)

A pair will set you back $48.50(USD), and you can find them over on Etsy now. Grab a pair for yourself now. For science, you monster.

As gadgets become more and more compact and portable, one thing that continues to stand in the way is the limitation of current battery technology. Just think of how the majority of space and weight inside your tablet or smartphone is its battery pack, and they still often run out of juice before you’re done for the day. As companies continue to work on improving battery life, and decreasing consumption, it would be nice to be able to generate more power when you need it. One conceptual device hopes to help a little bit, by harnessing the energy you expend when you walk or run.

While industrial designer Toby Blake’s Kinetic Charger concept isn’t the first such gadget, it’s definitely one of the more stylish and compact attempts to create a kinetic-energy storage device. The small USB charger would simply clip onto your beltline or a pocket, and would harvest energy you expend as you move around throughout the day, using reverse electrowetting technology.

Blake envisions that each one could store up to 4 watts of power, and you could connect multiples together to increase available energy levels.

Now there are probably some practical challenges that would limit the effectiveness of such as small kinetic-capture device, and there’s really not much room inside of it for a supplemental battery pack to store that energy in either. Still, it’s a cool design, and I’d love to see it come to market someday.

[via EcoChunk]

Well this is interesting: we don’t even know if the iPad Mini officially exists yet, but pricing for a whole range of iPad Mini variants has popped up in Media Markt’s (a German retail chain) internal system. First spotted by schimanke.com (via Mobile Geeks), this list gives us some insight into the pricing structure Apple may go with. Of course, this is all assuming that the iPad Mini is a real device, as so far, we’ve received nothing in the way of actual confirmation for Apple. In other words, tread carefully, because even though this is exciting, it doesn’t mean much until Apple gives official word.

Looking at the leaked listing, we can see that Apple may have quite the collection of iPad Minis planned. Internal storage options start at 8GB and go all the way up to 64GB, with Wi-Fi only and 3G variants of each model. Each one also comes in white and black, so if this listing is legitimate, customers will have a wide range of options to choose from. Have a look at a break down of the pricing below:

8GB Wi-Fi only – €249 ($323)
8GB Wi-Fi and 3G – €349 ($452)

16GB Wi-Fi only – €349 ($452)
16GB Wi-Fi and 3G – €449 ($582)

32GB Wi-Fi only – €449 ($582)
32GB Wi-Fi and 3G – €549 ($711)

64GB Wi-Fi only – €549 ($711)
64GB Wi-Fi and 3G – €649 ($841)

With those prices, it seems that Apple isn’t all that concerned with competing with the Google Nexus 7 directly. The 8GB Nexus 7 only costs $199, remember, and Apple’s cheapest iPad Mini comes it just north of $300. We’re hesitant to say that this is the real deal, mostly because Apple has so far remained silent on the existence of the iPad Mini, but with all of the leaks that have happened in the past few weeks, it’s hard not to believe that the iPad Mini is on the way.

The current whispers are telling us that Apple will reveal the iPad Mini at a press event on October 23, but so far the company hasn’t sent out any invitations to such an event. If October 23 is indeed the big day, that means we don’t have much longer to wait until the iPad Mini is made official. Stay tuned, because we’ll have all of the details you need to know right here at SlashGear.

iPad Mini pricing appears in German retailer’s internal listing is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.