Hasta La Gadget!

Oklahoma is the latest state to reject two key elements of President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan to extend health coverage to poor and middle-class Americans, Gov. Mary Fallin (R) announced Monday.

Oklahoma won’t participate in Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid to the state’s poorest residents, or create a health insurance exchange, Fallin said in a press release and a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Not expanding Medicaid to the poor and refusing to establish health insurance exchanges — online marketplaces to shop for coverage — jeopardizes the health care reform law’s aim to enroll 30 million people into coverage by 2022. The health care reform law permits anyone who earns up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $14,856, to enroll in Medicaid. The law also provides tax credits to people who earn up to four times the poverty level — $44,680 in 2012 — to help pay for private health insurance.

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Emirates Airline is right now one of the world’s largest carriers, and they intend to get in on the tablet action as well, although they have decided to forgo the all too popular iPad and settle for Windows 8 tablets instead. In fact, Emirates intend to hand out a thousand of such devices to its cabin crew, where these tablets will run an in-house app known as Knowledge Driven Inflight Service (KIS) which will assist flight attendants to better provide an exceptional level of service to passengers so that Emirates will be able to maintain its famous service standards.

The KIS has been described as “a fully immersive crew and customer management solution”, where it will enable crew to access different kinds of information which enables them to deliver a more attentive and individualized level of service to passengers, and this service will range from food to wine as well as seating preferences. Heck, it can even be used as a kind of almanac to keep track of issues that passengers have experienced on previous flights, in addition to frequent flyer status. The Windows 8 tablet that will be deployed would be the HP ElitePad 900 that is powered by Windows 8 Enterprise.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HP ElitePad 900 knocks on the FCC, HP ElitePad 900 Business Tablet with Windows 8 ,

You need your house to feel safe over the holidays, whether you’re heading out of town, or staying home to host family between turkey time and New Year’s Eve. That’s where technology can help. Here’s a look at the essential items to consider when you’re defending your castle this holiday season. More »

Short Version

Do you like power? It’s very useful for using all those electronic devices we have. But often, those devices have less power than we’d like them to, especially when we’re traveling or fighting for socket space at a coffee shop or conference. The HyperJuice 2 can provide that power, and lots of it, enough to double the life of a new Retina MacBook Pro, and extend considerably longer the life of other, less power-hungry Macs.

Long Version

Features:

• Two 10-watt USB ports for high-speed iPad charging (also works with basically any other device)
• OLED display for charge/discharge and battery level info
• Battery designed to be fully user-replaceable

Info:

• 100Wh battery (compared to 50Wh on 13-inch MacBook Air, 95Wh on 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro)
• Price: $299.95
• Available: Now (ships in 2 weeks)
• Product page

The HyperJuice 2 is…

… like your standard external power reserves and battery banks, but on steroids because it’s designed to extend the battery life of your Mac laptop a significant, non-trivial amount. And it manages that, boosting my Retina MacBook’s battery life to around double, and providing quick access to plenty of juice for both iPhones and iPads. Since this is the sequel, you get two USB ports instead of one for simultaneous gadget charging.

Buy the HyperJuice 2 for…

… people who always complain about their battery dying, on any device they have. But make sure they’re at least somewhat technically proficient and willing to get their hands dirty: Apple nixed the MagSafe adapter that used to ship with the HyperJuice, so this one requires surgery if you want it to charge (and not just power) your MacBook’s battery. The kit for converting your MagSafe (not MagSafe 2, mind you, those aren’t compatible) adapter to work with HyperJuice 2 costs $49.95, but it does come with some solid wire strippers that are an awesome addition to any gadget lover’s tool kit.

Because…

… if you have ever run out of juice at a crucial moment and had no way to get the power back on, you already know this is the greatest gift you could ever receive. Definitely not for everyone at $300, but power is a wonderful, wonderful thing that you can’t put a price tag on in some lines of work.

The Urban Shredder—possibly the unholy offspring of a motorcycle and skateboard—looks like a cycle shop custom creation designed for only the most extreme/insane riders. But it’s actually a ridable Hot Wheels toy, and could be one of the most popular/most expensive/most dangerous toys this Christmas. More »