Hasta La Gadget!

If you are a huge fan of the video game Portal, then you would definitely want to check out this particular officially licensed Portal product – the $99.99 Customizable Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. As the name would have it, you can be just…you. It does not matter if you are more partial towards Chell, Atlas, or P-Body, you can be who you were born to be. Perhaps your portal gun comes with Atlas stripes, but you would want to fire in P-Body colors why not? Either that or you can opt to have no stripes at all, while having it fire in Atlas colors, how about that?

The Customizable Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is a life size, 1:1 scale replica of the Handheld Portal Device, and it is more or less guaranteed to make you feel as though you are really in the testing facility. Being fully customizable, all it takes is a single switch, and you can toggle between the LED colors: red orange/yellow, blue, purple. The other switch will allow you to flip between color 1, color 2, and off. All you need to do is set the switch to the type of portal you would want, pull the trigger, and you’re good to go. It is powered by a trio of C batteries.

[ Customizable Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

When Sony and Box came together last year to offer Xperia owners a tantalizing deal of 50GB of free storage for life, the promotion was only set to run for a year. Now that shopping season is upon us once more, however, the holiday spirit must’ve moved them to extend the partnership for yet another year — that, or Sony needs any edge it can to move those Xperia devices to consumer hands. Just as with the prior promo, Xperia and Sony tablet users can snag 50 gigs of cloud storage completely gratis just by signing up or tapping into existing Box accounts on their devices before December 31st 2013. However, do note that the offer doesn’t extend to the Xperia X10 mini, the X10 mini pro and anything that has firmware older than Android 2.1. Now that Sony has this going for two years straight, maybe they should extend this to a lifetime scenario, or as long as Box sticks around to offer up that sweet storage in the sky.

Continue reading Sony and Box extend BFF status, offer 50GB free storage to Xperia owners through 2013

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony

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Via: MobileBurn

Source: Sony

Apple and Google have a cordial relationship peppered with bouts of sparring and relentless competing for the world’s mobile users. Now the two companies have formed an unlikely – although not surprising – joint effort to acquire Eastman Kodak’s 1,100 patents, according to unnamed sources familiar with the issue. The patents will cost upwards of $500 million, with both companies having already tried acquiring them for lesser amounts independently.

Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy back in January of this year, showing $5.1 billion in assets and $6.5 billion in debt. That debt includes a rather hefty $950 million Citigroup loan, which Kodak will pay off in part with the money it makes from the patent sales. If all goes as planned, Kodak anticipates being out of bankruptcy by June 2013.

It is not uncommon for companies to form a group and jointly bid on patents. Before joining up, Apple and Google both led their own groups in pursuit of the patents. Apple was joined by the likes of Microsoft and Intellectual Venture Management LLC, while Google was joined by manufacturers of Android smartphones and the RPX Corporation. The offers for the patents fell between $150 million and $250 million.

Recent examples of companies jointly acquiring patents includes 2011′s band of Apple, RIM, EMC, Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony shelling out $4.5 billion for 6,000 Nortel Networks patents and patent applications. Google did not offer a comment when questioned about the matter, saying only that it doesn’t comment on rumors. Likewise, Apple has remained silent amidst the speculation.

[via Bloomberg]

Apple and Google reportedly join forces to buy Kodak patents is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Researchers with Ghent University’s Centre of Microsystems Technology, CMST for short, have developed an LCD-based contact lens display. The LCD-based contact lens offers advantages over its LED-based counterparts, allowing the full display surface to be utilized. There’s a video of the device available after the break.

With LCD-based contact lens displays, a variety of pixel sizes and quantities can be used, and because the entire display surface is utilized, the contact display can serve more functions, such as working as sunglasses. The current prototype is rudimentary, displaying simple patterns, such as the dollar sign visible in the image above. With time, however, as the technology is refined, the contact lens will be able to perform more actions, such as providing adjustable eye color.

The project’s main researcher Jelle De Smet offered this statement. “Normally, flexible displays using liquid crystal cells are not designed to be formed into a new shape, especially not a spherical one. Thus, the main challenge was to create a very thin, spherically curved substrate with active layers that could withstand the extreme molding processes … By using new kinds of conductive polymers and integrating them into a smooth spherical cell, we were able to fabricate a new LCD-based contact lens display.”

Bringing a bit more of a science fiction feel into the equation is also the suggestion that at some point, the contact lens display can also be used to superimpose images into the wearer’s vision. Both cosmetic and medical functions can, theoretically, be provided by the LCD-based contact lens display with later prototypes. For now, researchers are working on refining the technology and while giving us a glimpse into what the future.

[via Universiteit Gent]

Researchers develop LCD-based contact lens display is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.