Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, US Immigrations and Customs made the announcement that they were dropping BlackBerry as their main devices and would be favoring the iPhone. Today, another US department is heading that way as well. The US Department of Defense at the Pentagon has announced that it will be adding iOS and Android devices to its network.

Currently, The Pentagon is planning to hire a contractor that will build a system to manage and secure at over 160,000 iOS and Android devices. According to a document posted last week, the system could be expanded to handle around 8 million devices in total. However, the Pentagon plans to keep its support BlackBerry devices.

Then again, that doesn’t make the situation for RIM any better. Since the Pentagon is adding iOS and Android devices to its network, the chances that Pentagon employees will stick to BlackBerry over iOS and Android is fairly slim. Even though BlackBerry has seen dedication from government organizations over the past few years, that doesn’t mean that it’ll always be that way.

According to the contracting document, the Pentagon wants to give its employees the opportunity to more choices when it comes to using mobile devices at the Pentagon. The Defense Department wants its employees to “take advantage of the increasing wireless capabilities that exist and that are developing in the marketplace.”

[via The Washington Post]

Image via Flickr

Pentagon planning to adopt iOS, Android along with BlackBerry is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Think of the evolution of the mouse & keyboard. First there was the lack of mouse and the directional keys on a keyboard attached to the PC. Then this crazy little thing with the clicks came along – albeit corded. Keyboards too became corded. Then the mouse and keyboard lost their tail and went wireless. Somewhere in there the track pad came on the scene. What’s next? Your finger. And it looks like early 2013 will make it a reality.

Welcome to the Leap, launching in early 2013 for just $69.99. This nifty gadget will revolutionize how you navigate your PC or laptop. Simply plug in the cell phone sized device into a USB port. Using Leap Motion Technology the device creates a 3D interaction space around your computer. It distinguishes thumbs from fingers from hands and uses your motion to maneuver around. Swipe to change pages (remember Tom Cruise in Minority Report?). Or accurately game. Point a pen to sign a document. Zoom-in or zoom-out by pinching. Check the video below to see the Leap in action. How accurate can it be you may ask? It tracks motion down to 1/100th of a millimeter. You will even be able to create custom motions for some of your most used functions. The Leap is compatible with Windows 7 and 8 and Mac OS X and Linux is in development. Pre-orders are being taken now, so cruise over to www.leapmotion.com to get your order in for delivery in just a few months.

Thanks: TechOD

This is still breaking, but massive media conglomerate Disney has bought Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars. Disney bought Pixar in 2006 and Marvel in 2009, so they’re no strangers to massive purchases. However, the worst (or best, if you loved Attack of the Clones) news is that they’re rebooting the Star Wars franchise and making a seventh film to hit theaters in 2015. From the press release:

Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas…  [With] George Lucas serving as creative consultant, Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future.

The conference call for investors starts at 4:30 EST, so we’ll be getting more details then. The purchase includes notable special effects studio Industrial Light and Magic, which produces special effects for a whole bunch of Hollywood blockbusters. This year, it worked on The Hunger Games and The Avengers. We’ll update more as the whole internet shudders.

Image courtesy of Witney Seibold, and it’s not the real logo.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray, Man embarks on full-scale Millennium Falcon replica project,

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared the city’s drinking water to be safe on Tuesday after the superstorm Sandy ravaged the area.

Mayor: We’ve tested NYC drinking water and it’s completely safe. #Sandy

— NYC Mayor’s Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) October 30, 2012

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WASHINGTON — Democratic activists in Riverside County, Calif., claim that a Republican voter outreach project may be illegally registering Democrats as Republicans to boost the GOP’s registration advantage, according to CaliforniaWatch.org, an investigative journalism outfit.

The website reports, “In a complaint filed last week with the county registrar of voters, the Democrats presented affidavits from 133 Democratic voters who said they had been re-registered as Republicans without their consent after they encountered petition circulators outside welfare offices and stores.”

A local Democratic Party spokesman told CaliforniaWatch.org that the registration project’s efforts may aid GOP fundraising efforts (by making local races seem more winnable) and impede Democrats’ ability to turn out their voters. A spokeswoman for the Golden State Voter Participation Project denied the allegations, saying, “Our canvassers are trained about the laws, the rules and how to conduct themselves.”

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