Hasta La Gadget!

When it comes to naming your product, hitting the nail on the head can be quite tricky. You will need something that is short and sweet, and yet gets the message across so that ordinary folks would know what you are referring to without having to pause and think. Giving smartphones names could be quite a fun affair, where you have Samsung with their Galaxy range, HTC with different kinds of “feelings” involved (Desire, Sensation, et al), Sony with their trademark Xperia line, the list goes on. How about BLU Products? We also haven’t heard of them, but this could by the very reason why they decided to go for the jugular by calling their latest smartphone as the VIVO 4.65 HD. You know for sure this puppy will come with a 4.65” display, and it will be the better version of the VIVO 4.3 that rolled out earlier this year.

Needless to say, whenever a new model hits the market, one can expect marked improvements, and for the VIVO 4.65 HD, you will be able to find a more generously sized display at 4.65″ compared to 4.3″ from the previous model, in addition to a better display resolution thanks to its HD Super AMOLED screen, not to mention having a bump in the RAM department to touch the 1GB mark.

The VIVO 4.65 HD’s overall design will continue from where its predecessor left off, that is, you will not be able to find any physical hardware buttons on the front so that your eyes are met with a seamless elegant design, and the VIVO 4.65 HD will comfortably occupy the mid-range smartphone market thanks to its dual-core MediaTek MT6577 1.2 GHz Cortex A9 processor, accompanied by 3G/HSPA connectivity, powered by the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, while carrying an 8-megapixel autofocus camera at the back that does HD video recording and playback.

Oh, there is also dual SIM capability that lets you live with two lines simultaneously, so that both SIMs remain active, and you can switch from one line to the other seamlessly without having to disable one of them. Expect the unlocked VIVO 4.65 HD to retail for $300 a pop when it arrives on US shores in January next year.

Press Release
[ BLU Products announces VIVO 4.65 HD smartphone copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

We’ve seen plenty of remote-controlled toy robots over the years. We’ve seen remote-controlled devices that can fly such as the AR Drone and remote-controlled devices that roll around on the ground as well. What I don’t recall seeing is a remote-controlled device that combines both ground and air capability into one device.

This cool little toy is called the Hybrid Terrestrial and Aerial Quadrotor (HyTAQ) and was designed by Arash Kalantari and Matthew Spenko. Both of the designers hail from the robotics laboratory at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The device looks a lot like your typical four rotor flying helicopter toy inside a cage to help prevent you from breaking it when you smack into the wall.

Rather than that cage being for the protection of the rotors alone, it actually acts as a large wheel that allows the remote control device to roll around on the ground. The cage is made from a combination of polycarbonate and carbon fiber and has a long axle that is attached to the sides of the quadrotor flying machine. While the primary purpose of the cage is to allow ground mobility, it does actually protect the rotors.

You can see the device in action in the video below. It appears that the same controls that control flight for the little machine also control movement on the ground. The robotic machine can transition from ground operation to flight impressively quick and appears to be controlled like any other quadrotor we’ve seen before. The HyTAQ is capable of operating on just about any surface.

[via Technabob]

HyTAQ robot rolls on the ground and flies through the air is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A security flaw that quietly saves private videos in Snapchat and Facebook Poke for future recovery, when the sender expects them to be deleted after a few seconds, has been identified in the new “sexting” apps. Both apps promise a simple way to share photos and video temporarily, with the promise that they’ll be deleted shortly after viewing; however, BuzzFeed discovered, a simple third-party file browser can pull the video files from a cached store on your iPhone or iPad, allowing the clips to be archived and shared.

Snapchat and Poke – Facebook’s recently released copy of the original app – each cater to the temporary messaging market. Senders of messages, photos, and video can choose how long they wish the content to be available, for up to ten seconds, after which time the promise is that they are deleted from the app and the company’s own servers.

Although a wide variety of uses are suggested, the most commonly-cited purpose for Snapchat and Poke is “sexting” where the ephemeral nature of the media leaves users more confident that DIY pornography won’t hang around to haunt them later. While screenshots can be saved on the device, both apps warn the sender that a shot has been taken.

This new hack, however, gives no such warning. Users simply need to load – but not open – any received clip, then plug their iOS device into their computer and use a third-party file browser such as iFunBox to navigate through to the Snapchat/Poke temporary file folder (either Snapchat/tmp or library/caches/fbstore/mediacard). The video clips are stored there; in Facebook’s case, they are deleted after being watched, whereas Snapchat appears to save them forever.

The hack only works with videos – photos don’t appear to be cached – but serves as another warning that even the most casual digital content could be extracted if users have the right tools. Despite the relative simplicity of the cache access, Snapchat doesn’t appear to be concerned. “The people who most enjoy using Snapchat are those who embrace the spirit and intent of the service” founder Evan Spiegel told BuzzFeed. “There will always be ways to reverse engineer technology products — but that spoils the fun!”

Facebook Poke and Snapchat bug saves “deleted” videos is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The results of the annual holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index from ForeSee are in for this year. The survey is compiled from 24,000 customer surveys gathered between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The results show that Apple has declined in rankings falling to a new four-year low for online customer satisfaction.

Apple lost three points falling from 83 points last year to 80 points this year. That might not seem like such a large drop, but the decline is said to be among the biggest ForeSee recorded this year. That decline also saw Apple slip to a four-year low.

Some mistakes made by Apple’s former head of retail operations, John Browett, are pointing to as part of the reason for the decline in satisfaction for Apple. Browett was the person that made the odd decision to freeze hiring at Apple Stores and scale back payroll expenses among other things. Other major retailers also saw significant declines in satisfaction including JCPenney.com, Dell.com, TigerDirect.com, and Autopartswarehouse.com.

All of those websites saw three points decrease in customer satisfaction this year except for JCPenney.com, which saw a five-point decrease. ForeSee says that website functionality is a top priority for improvement at Apple. However, functionality of the site is pretty much the same as it was last year when Apple was in the top five in the rankings.

“The luster of Apple is fading a bit,” Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee toldAllThingsD. “Keeping up with consumer’s rising expectations of the online customer experience is no easy task, but not keeping up can lead to decline in loyalty, word of mouth and revenue growth. In particular, even though Apple gets top dollar for their products, price is an area weakness for the company when it comes to satisfaction. Apple’s site might be due for some changes, and the usefulness, convenience and variety of features on the site presents the biggest opportunity for Apple to improve the customer experience.”

[via AllthingsD]

Apple customer satisfaction falls to four-year low in new survey is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With today’s society, we’re sure that most parents will be appalled by the things their teens say when they text their friends, what with all the abbreviations, acronyms and swearing involved. While it is debatable as to whether it is right to invade the privacy of your teen, the South Korean government is hoping to do that for parents by installing software on the smartphones of teenagers that will block “illegal” and “harmful” information which includes swear words, slang and access to internet pornography. We’re not sure how exactly this will work out and how this software will be installed, but it definitely sounds like an interesting plan.

South Korea has been known for taking rather proactive steps when it comes to their youths, implementing curfews for gaming, such as the banning of gaming after midnight for underaged gamers, as well as curbing the number of consecutive hours underaged gamers are allowed to play online games. The government is hoping that with all of this, young children will learn to do more “positive” things that don’t necessarily involve staying at home glued to the computer screen for long hours.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Airport Chatter Makes Travel More Social On Your iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S4 Launching April With S Pen [Rumor],