Hasta La Gadget!

There are whispers going on at Mobilegeeks that South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung will lift the veil on their new flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy S4 sometime at the end of February 2013, which means we could very well be looking at a Mobile World Congress debut next year which tends to happen in February at Barcelona, Spain. Mobilegeeks does have a pretty good track record when it comes to rumors, as they also correctly reported about the Galaxy Premier in October.

Needless to say, you can be very sure that the Samsung Galaxy S4, where released, will be a tour de force when it comes to hardware and system specifications. So far, we believe that the new Galaxy S4 will come with a new Super AMOLED display that blows the rest of the competition out of the water, and if rumors of a new iPhone 5S that will launch in early 2013 starting to gather momentum, it would be wise for Samsung to launch a pre-emptive strike with the Galaxy S4.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Galaxy S4 rumored to use Exynos 5450 quad-core chipset clocked at 2.0GHz, Alleged 13MP camera module for the Samsung Galaxy S4 spotted,

If you tend to do a whole lot of traveling to far and exotic places whose language you are unable to understand, then you would also know the pain of trying to pronounce street addresses in the local language. If you plan to explore wandering around the city on your own, then be prepared for an unexpected adventure, although smartphone translation apps do help out a fair bit. A couple of designers decided to take things one step further, where Andrew Spitz and Momo Miyazaki developed the “WTPh? What the Phonics” interactive installation that functions as a proof of concept for international tourist areas.

The proof of concept consists of a series of streets signs that come with the audio of a local pronouncing the word on the sign. Not only that, the signs will also show a light on top of individual syllables as it is being spoken, similar to how that bouncing ball on karaoke videos work. Good luck with non-Romanized languages such as Arabic and Chinese!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: EyeSee Mannequins Keep A Close Watch On Shoppers, Disney Movies Online To Kick The Bucket,

If you are a huge Star Wars fan, then you would definitely love what fifth grade teacher Morgan has done to his Vespa scooter – by slapping it with Star Wars decals on the vintage luggage case, in addition to decking out the entire old school scooter to look similar to the world’s most famous astromech droid – R2-D2.

According to Morgan, “I am a fifth grade teacher/SW nerd, and I recently converted my Vespa that I ride into work every day to look like the one and only R2. This was done with adhesive vinyl, some meticulous cutting and a 12-pack of beer. It gets a lot of looks and thumbs up, and often times while I am sitting at a stop light someone crossing the street will pause to take notice. The rear trunk is a real vintage piece and I removed the original faded travel stickers and replaced them with various retro style Star Wars art and posters that I found on the internet.”

Definitely one of the more eye stopping DIY work done, and while this R2-D2 Vespa scooter is unable to save the galaxy, it will ferry you from point A to point B in style. No one said anything about hyperspace travel though, so don’t go eyeing the Ferrari at the red light for a challenge.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DIY R2-D2 can fit in a standard person, Star Wars R2-D2 NES console is truly in a galaxy of its own,

Things that can raise blood pressure: eating too much salt, stress … having a little brother?

A new study of Bolivian villagers shows a link between having a younger brother and slightly increased blood pressure levels later on in adulthood, though the Brandeis University researchers did note that the effect seemed to diminish with age.

Researchers analyzed the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels of 374 people of Amazonian descent between the ages of 16 and 60, who came from 13 villages in Bolivia. They also took note of what the study participants’ birth order was — whether they were the oldest or youngest, had siblings, etc.

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Product designer Massoud Hassani has come up with a rather ingenious method of clearing up mines from minefields. The Mine Kafon is Massoud’s graduate project, and it looks set to be featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where it will be fettered as a cheap (and some might even consider it to be beautiful) way of clearing mine fields. Massoud Hassani’s story is not that of being born with a silver spoon, but rather, being raised in Afghanistan, a country which has plenty of land mines, proved to inspire him to create the Mine Kafon that was inspired by the different toys that he crafted during his youth, including light, tumbleweed-like objects which he and other neighborhood kids would race against each other.

The toys would sometimes roll into the mine fields, rendering them useless (or rather, foolhardy to be retrieved). Upon his father’s death, Hassani and family immigrated to the Netherlands. The Mine Kafon is built on an entirely larger scale compared to his childhood toys, being nearly as tall as an adult male. Made out of plastic and bamboo, it will cost 40 Euros a pop, which is a whole lot more affordable than other solutions. Each bamboo spine comes with a suction cup which amplifies the weight of the Kafon as the wind blows it around, and individual Kafons are strong enough to withstand up to four mine blasts before losing too many spines to roll about. There will be GPS chips within each Kafon, paving the way to enable remote tracking of where mines have yet to be cleared, as well as the areas where they’ve been cleared.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Intellipaper USB Paper Drive, Blood Pressure Monitor Loses Cuff,