Hasta La Gadget!

The judge who came up with the bizarre idea of forcing Apple to apologise on the front page of its web site after a court battle with Samsung went wrong has a new job, working for… Samsung. More »

Audrey Hepburn is probably one of the most iconic women in the film and fashion industry, with many attempting to recreate her beauty and sense of style. In fact it seems that task proved to be quite difficult as production company Framestore found out when attempting to create an advertisement for chocolate company, Galaxy. The original idea was to use an Audrey Hepburn double and that’s what the production company set out to do. They scanned the double’s face and did a live shooting before return back to their studio for further refinement. Unfortunately the facial scan did not prove to be as accurate as they thought and failed to capture certain iconic nuances, such as Hepburn’s eyes and smile.

They ultimately decided that CG was the way to go and the results can be seen in the video above, which we have to admit looks stunning and almost as if Hepburn was still alive and acted in the commercial. If you’d like to find out more about the process in which Framestore went through, you can find a detail description at Galaxy’s website. In the meantime if you have a minute to spare, do check out the video above and let us know what you think!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BallCam Football Captures Rotating Video To Create Steady Images, PS4 Live Stream Drew 8 Million Viewers On Ustream,

Are you looking forward to getting your hands on the Blackberry Z10? We’re sure that many Blackberry fans are, but when exactly will it launch? Well the good news is that based on a recent tweet by Blackberry, “BlackBerry 10 will be available across the U.S. in a few short weeks”. Unfortunately no specific dates were mentioned, but we guess that’s as official as it gets. No mention of which carriers it will be arriving on either, but so far based on previous reports, T-Mobile could be getting the Z10 in mid-March, while Verizon’s Z10 could see a launch in April. We’ve seen photos of the Z10 with Verizon’s branding so we guess a soon-ish launch wouldn’t be completely out of the question. We will keep our eyes peeled for more news and specific dates, so check back with us at a later date for the details.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Ubergizmo’s Best of MWC 2013, Samsung Galaxy S4 Rumored To Feature Different Chipsets For Different Regions,

Out of all of the amazing wonders and phenomenon in space, one of the most amazing and perplexing is the black hole. A black hole has incredibly strong gravitational pull capturing everything from rock and gas to light. Nothing escapes a black hole.

Scientists have studied black holes for years in an attempt to understand how they are created and how they work. Astronomers have announced that they have made the first reliable measurement of a supermassive black hole’s spin. The black hole the scientists studied is at the center of a spiral galaxy called NGC 1365.

According to the scientists, this gigantic black hole is spinning at about 84% of the speed that Einstein’s general theory of relativity will allow. The discovery shows that some giant supermassive black hole’s are spinning very quickly. This discovery confirms studies in the past that had hypothesized black holes spun very quickly.

Those previous studies were unable to confirm the speedy rotation of the target black hole. NGC 1365 is 56 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy is located in the constellation Fornax, and the black hole in its center is more massive than several million suns. This particular black hole is also known to spew huge amounts of energy as it gobbles up gas and other objects nearby. The scientists used the high-energy light emitted by iron atoms consumed by the black hole to trace the motion of the flat, rotating accretion disk that circles the black hole.

[via Space.com]

Scientists reliably measure a supermassive black hole’s spin for the first time is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Leap Wireless’ sales of the iPhone have significantly under-performed, despite expectations that a prepaid iPhone 5 would be in hot demand, with $100m-worth of unsold stock expected by June. Leap’s deal with Apple saw the iPhone 5 offered through Cricket Wireless at $500 with no ongoing commitment, but according to an 10-K SEC filing, the carrier predicts it will have only sold half of the expected units by the time the smartphone reaches its first birthday.

Leap signed a three year long purchase commitment with Apple back in May 2012, which came into effect when Cricket began selling phones the following month. That agreement basically means Leap must buy a certain, minimum amount of devices from Apple, even if it doesn’t necessarily sell that many.

“At our current purchase rate, we project that we will purchase approximately one-half of our first-year minimum purchase commitment through June 2013 … If Apple were to require us to meet the annual minimum commitment in each of the three years of the contract term, we estimate that we would be required to purchase approximately $100 million of additional iPhones in mid-2013 above our current purchase rate, approximately $150 million of additional iPhones in mid-2014 above our current purchase rate and approximately $200 million of additional iPhones in mid-2015 above our current purchase rate” Leap Wireless

Part of the problem, Leap suggests, is the limitations of its network coverage. Cricket service isn’t available to the same extent as that of AT&T and Verizon, which can mean potential customers either can’t buy the iPhone where they live, or choose another carrier because they may need to travel outside of Cricket’s network.

As the carrier points out, “if Apple introduces an AWS-compatible version of the iPhone in the future, we will be able to sell the device in additional markets covering approximately 40% of our covered POPs.” Nonetheless, Leap isn’t counting on that necessarily happening – or, indeed, Apple agreeing to renegotiate the purchase commitment – and so is considering other strategies.

They include more comprehensive device leasing or financing programs, which would spread the upfront cost of the iPhone 5 out over a more extended period, or even just changing the sticker price of the iPhone itself. The carrier also hopes to work with Apple to boost its promotional drive, to tackle the possibility that many people might not even consider Cricket in the first place.

Interestingly, while Leap’s COO says he is “not concerned about … meeting the Apple commitment,” attempting to reassure the market during a recent financial results call, he is also putting a big chunk of his faith in another device. “I would say there was a stronger device [than iPhone 5] in our lineup” Jerry Elliot told analysts last week, referring to Samsung’s Galaxy S III.

[via WSJ]

Cricket’s iPhone 5 play stumbles amid half the predicted demand is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.