Hasta La Gadget!

Now, the $99.95 Pedometer Walking Stick is something that folks should have thought up of in the first place, but somehow or rather, no one came up with it until the folks at Hammacher did. As the name implies, this walking stick boats of a built-in pedometer which is more than capable of tracking steps, distance, time, and calories. It is constructed from lightweight yet sturdy aluminum, where the stick itself will assemble from two halves, twisting and locking into place without taking up too much of your time. Right below the handle on the shaft itself lies the pedometer that will activate automatically whenever its rubber tip strikes the ground.

This pedometer will then get to work, measuring every other step that is taken during a walking session while showing off the elapsed time. Whenever you stop, the pedometer will pause its counting to ensure accuracy. The display also shows off the total number of steps, calories burned, and distance in 10ths of a mile. With a contoured ABS handle that includes a polyester wrist strap and an upper shaft that has been coated with rubber for a comfortable grip, you know that the Pedometer Walking Stick is not poorly thought up of. There is also an LED light that clips to the shaft so that it can help illuminate walkways, or you can use it to flash a warning signal by blinking.

[ Pedometer Walking Stick copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. The victims, a brother and sister, are wrapped in white cloth with only their faces showing.

“The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children,” said jury member Mayu Mohanna of Peru. “It’s a picture I will not forget.”

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The latest numbers are in from NPD Group for January of 2013 looking at the United States video game industry. The caveat with the numbers for January is that the month corresponded with the National Retail Federation leap week. I had never heard of that before, but basically it means the National Retail Federation adds an additional week to the month of January 2013 as far as sales numbers are concerned while January 2012 only had four weeks.

With that little tidbit in mind, let’s talk about the video game industry for January 2013. To make things a bit more comparable to last year, Gamasutra broke out the calculator and removed statistics for that extra week to give us comparable numbers. This fancy calculator work shows that overall retail sales across hardware, software, and accessories for the gaming market was down approximately 13% in January of 2013 to $667.8 million compared to $765.6 million in January 2012.

A NPD rep noted that sales of Wii U hardware for its first three months of availability are 38% lower than the numbers for the Nintendo Wii at the same point. Another source cited from within NPD claims that sales of the Wii U for January were “well under” 100,000 units. Gamasutra estimates that sales for the Wii U were a scant 45,000 to 59,000 units.

That is very sad news for Nintendo indeed because if 59,000 units or less sold is accurate, that is worse than any of the three previous generation gaming consoles in their worst months. The top video games according to NPD in order from number one down include Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Far Cry 3, Just Dance 4, NBA 2K13, and Madden NFL 13.

[via Gamasutra]

Nintendo Wii U continues with lackluster sales is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In the February issue of “More” magazine, blogger Lee Woodruff wrote about a stunning suicide pact she made with her sisters. The story begins below.

My two sisters and I are driving to a family reunion when he calls. It’s serendipitous. We’d been trading phone messages for two weeks, and now, at the moment he finally catches up with me, we are all three of us in the car.

“This is a theoretical conversation, right?” my physician friend says over the speakerphone. “You are doing research for a novel?”

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New, high-res images are emerging which purport to be the new HTC One. They look kind of nice, featuring a bit of old school HTC grille action—but would they be enough to tempt you into buying one? More »