Hasta La Gadget!

One of the selling points of Nokia’s Lumia series of Windows Phone handsets is that it is affordable. This helps Nokia gain a pricing advantage over their more expensive Android and Apple rivals. It looks like Nokia is hoping to gain a bigger advantage as far as the IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa) region is concerned and has revealed that the Finnish company would be further adjusting its prices of their Lumia range to make them more affordable.

The reason behind this is because unlike countries like the US or the UK, mobile devices in IMEA tend to be unsubsidized by carriers. Instead customers will have to buy a phone independently if they wish to own it, as opposed to buying it at an extremely low price but be tied to a contract. Since this is usually the case in the IMEA region, Nokia has decided to lower the prices of their Lumia phones to make them more accessible to the general public. We doubt Nokia will be bringing this practice to the US, but one can always hope, right? Would you be more inclined to purchase a Nokia Lumia device if it were even cheaper than they are now?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Possible Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500) Sample Photos Hit The Web, WhatsApp For Windows Phone Receives Major Update,

Scientists have announced that they have discovered an odd little planet that has set a new record for the smallest alien world ever discovered. According to the scientists, the exoplanet is about the same size as the Earth’s moon. The planet has been dubbed Kepler-37b.

The scientists involved in the discovery say that this is the first exoplanet ever discovered that is smaller than Mercury. The planet makes an orbit of its parent star every 13 days and has an insanely high surface temperature of about 800°F. This planet was discovered along with two other larger planets orbiting the same parent star.

The parent star is about 215 light years from Earth, it and its planets were discovered using the Kepler space telescope. The two larger planets have been called Kepler-37c and Kepler-37d. The scientists say that 37b is so small finding it was unlikely, but the parent star had some attributes that made the discovery possible.

The attributes that made the discovery of the tiny planet possible included some sunspots on the parent star and the fact that the star is bright relative to its planets. These facts made it easier for Kepler to spot the dimming that takes place when a planet passes in front of its parent star, called the transit. The tiny size of the planet was estimated because the dip in the parent star’s light was only 22 ppm. The scientists say that all three of the planets in orbit around the star are likely uninhabitable and all three are well inside the Earth-sun distance.

[via space.com]

Astronomers discover Moon-sized exoplanet called Kepler-37b is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Kids have it all these days — tailor–made gadgets, their own little corners in mobile platforms, and of course, loads and loads of content. The latest to hit the wires is the Nick app for the iPad, offering a slew of Nickelodeon programming wrapped in a swipe-driven, tyke-friendly interface. The goodies include animated shorts, videos, games, the ability to mark favorites, plus a smorgasbord of funny interactive elements and a “Do Not Touch” button that promises disruptive fun. Full episodes of the current shows can also be accessed if you’ve subscribed to Nickelodeon’s TV package via any one of eight providers. Seems like a swell way to keep those tech-savvy rug rats occupied between outdoor adventures and some DIY action. The 45MB payload is waiting at the source link, yours for the hard-to-argue cost of free.

Filed under: Tablets, HD

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Source: App Store

One of the biggest problems with touchscreen devices for many users is the fact that the touchscreen has no tactile feedback by itself. While you can feel physical buttons, there’s nothing on the touchscreen but a smooth surface. Many manufacturers have turned to tactile solutions such as haptic feedback via vibration. Immersion is one of the best-known companies in the tactile effect and feedback market.

Immersion has announced new tactile effect solutions that are designed to communicate physical presence, emotion, and realism to users of touchscreen devices. The company has announced new build-time interface solutions for OEM manufacturers designed to enrich the interactive mobile experience for users. One of the new experiences is designed to convey physical presence.

The physical presence feature is called the Tactile Presence solution and is available as an API that calls on low-power haptics. This feature creates and transmits tactile information between two devices adding a sense of physical presence. The feature allows users to feel the remote actions of another user through the application of dynamic tactile effects. This feature will create things like vibration feedback to go along with a LOL sent via a text message.

The same system can also be used for interactive gaming allowing players to sense remote partner actions. This is an interesting development that opens the door to allow two players separated by a huge distance who are playing a cooperative game to feel which direction the other player is going. The new Tactile Presence API is optimized to work with the Immersion TouchSense 5000 embedded software for high-definition haptics. The system transmits the tactile information via a mobile network or Wi-Fi and is expected to be available for OEM partners in the second half of 2013.

[via Immersion]

Immersion announces new tactile effect to communicate physical presence and more is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Mass Effect franchise since the original game launched years ago. Like many fans of the franchise, I didn’t particularly like the fact that my favorite characters were killed at the end of Mass Effect 3. The game was still a lot of fun though, and EA and BioWare have announced the launch dates for the last of the download content for the video game.

The download content pack Mass Effect 3: Citadel will be coming on March 5. Citadel is a single-player download pack that allows players to explore and discover new locations across the massive Citadel space station. The DLC pack will also allow players to play alongside of some of their favorite characters from all three of the Mass Effect video games.

Mass Effect 3: Reckoning is another download content pack aimed at multiple player gamers that will be available on February 26. This multiple player DLC pack includes new characters, new maps, and new weapons for players to enjoy. Mass Effects 3 developers will be streaming game play from Reckoning and taking questions from fans about this DLC pack on February 25 at 9:30 AM PST via Twitch.tv.

Citadel is the last single player DLC pack for Mass Effect 3 providing one last journey with Commander Shepard and his team. Citadel will cost $14.99 or 1200 MS Points. Reckoning is being offered at no cost and will be downloadable via Xbox Live, the PlayStation Store, or Origin software.

[via Mass Effect]

Mass Effect 3: Citadel DLC coming March 5, Reckoning on February 26 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.