Hasta La Gadget!

Square has launched Business in a Box, a hardware bundle targeting small businesses looking to ditch their existing payments provider, and instead take up with the Square Register in a simple to deploy package. The $299 bundle includes a pair of Square Readers and a secure iPad stand to turn the tablet into a point-of-sale machine, as well as an iPad controlled cash drawer for those customers who refuse to swipe like Square wishes they would.

A second version of the bundle, priced at $599, throws in a Star Micronics thermal printer, which can be used to give physical receipts. However, the Square Register app itself can email receipts if people want to do away with paper. The only actual Square product in the bundles is the Reader dongle itself, which plugs into the headphone socket on your iPad or iPhone; the iPad stand is Heckler Design’s WindFall, while the cash drawer is the APG Vasario 1616.

Since the system is modular, there’s plenty of flexibility as to how you set it up. All of the components can be left out on the countertop, or hidden mostly away, so that only the iPad itself is visible to customers. Since there are two Readers included, you can also go mobile with a second device, roaming the aisles in search of quavering customers.

The bundle is the latest push by Square to promote its mobile payments system, and follows a deal with Verizon last month and a long-term agreement with Starbucks which will see it replace the coffee company’s existing payments provider. Beyond the $299 kit price, the only ongoing charge is the 2.75-percent cut of each transaction that Square takes.

[via TIME]

Square “Business in a Box” ousts old payment providers with $299 bundle is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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LG released a video teasing its upcoming announcements at MWC in Barcelona next week which we believed was teasing a new device in its L, G, V and F-series. One day later, we now know a portion of what LG is planning to unveil at MWC thanks once again to everyone’s favorite Android-device leaker, evleaks.

The leaked press shot features two devices called the LG Optimus F7 (left) and Optimus F5 (right). Both devices seem to feature some kind of white plastic, or maybe a metallic front based on how reflective the device seems to be in the press shot.

No internal specifications were leaked along with the image, but we believe it’s safe to say both the LG Optimus F7 and Optimus F5 will run on Android and allow you to make a phone call of some kind, as well as checking messages and possibly taking pictures. We know this is the kind of professional research you look forward to from us at Ubergizmo.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Acer Liquid Z2 Smartphone For The Budget-Minded, Red HTC One Disappears,

Google’s stock closed at a record high of $800 yesterday. This is the first time a technology company has passed the $800 mark. It seems that the rumors of a Google store opening by the end of 2013 came down positively in Wall Street. The stocks for Google have jumped 14 % since the begging of 2013.

Google’s stock was at $700 in October 2007, and then the economy collapse happened. Nonetheless Google’s management changed in 2011 with Larry Page becoming the CEO and has given the company a boost of almost 35 % since his taking over the seat.  It seems that while Apple is tumbling down with a decrease of about $230 billion since September last, Google has been on the rise. Google creates the Android software, but distributes it to other mobile phone makers such as Samsung and HTC. This has helped manufactures cut the cost of smartphones and have been able to create stiff competition for Apple iPhones.

Google it seems has a long way to go and there is still space for going upwards. Especially with the leadership of Larry Page, the company should be in the headlines for more days to come.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 200 And 400 Chipset, BT Tower Breaks World Record With A 320-Gigapixel Photo,

If you’re a fan of the Naruto manga or anime series, you’ll be familiar with Sai, a ninja whose specialty is making ink drawings come to life. WobbleWorks’ 3Doodler isn’t as awesome as that, but it still comes close. It’s a pen-shaped 3D printer that’s as easy to use as an ordinary pen. And although it’s not quite as cheap as a pen, it’s also the cheapest 3D printer yet.

The 3Doodler works like a hot glue gun, except instead of glue it heats up ABS plastic, which quickly cools down as it exits the tip of the 3Doodler.

Pledge at least $75 (USD) on Kickstarter to reserve your own 3Doodler. This wonder gadget is one of the first big Kickstarter hits of 2013. It hit its target of $30,000 within hours and as of this writing has already garnered almost $600,000 in pledges and is still going strong. It’s easy to see why; this is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in bringing 3D printing to the masses.

With people as smart as the folks at WobbleWorks I am 100% sure that Sai’s technique will become real before I die. And that that technique will kill me.

[via Enpundit via Design You Trust]

Qualcomm didn’t show all its cards for this year when it unveiled the Snapdragon 600 and 800 at CES. The company is introducing a second-generation power charging technology, Quick Charge 2.0, that promises to cut mobile device charging times by as much as 75 percent versus regular power systems. Qualcomm has seen a tablet’s 7-hour top-up time reduced to under 3 hours. While 2.0 requires an optimized charger and is baked into the Snapdragon 800, it’s not exclusive to Qualcomm-based hardware — or small devices, for that matter. The updated Quick Charge is available as a stand-alone circuit, and could drive even laptops demanding up to 60W of energy. We don’t yet know the customer list, although Snapdragon 800 partners are included as a matter of course.

The telecom giant is saving one trick for itself, however. Snapdragon Voice Activation lets Snapdragon 800-based devices wake up through a specific voice command, whether or not those devices are online: think of it as a more advanced, less search-dependent parallel to Samsung’s wake-up trigger in S Voice. Both devices and software support must fall into place to make Voice Activation work, but truly hands-free mobile control could have a solid footing in the market before the year is over.

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile

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Source: Qualcomm