Hasta La Gadget!

Touchscreen laptops are more expensive than conventional ones because developing touch displays for laptops is not cheap. Ultrabooks are available in the mid to high price ranges, with both conventional and touchscreen displays. Prices of several models have been slashed at Microsoft Store, making these high-end and mid-range Windows 8 powered laptops a tad more affordable. If you’re in the market for a new ultrabook, you might want to check out these models. The discounted prices do make up for a good deal.

The HP Spectre XT TouchSmart ultrabook price has been cut down by $100, it is now available for $1,249 instead of $1,349. The mid-range HP Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook also gets a $100 discount, it can now be purchased from the Microsoft Store for $599. The same discount has been applied to Sony Vaio T Series which now has a price tag of $799. Another Sony ultrabook model has been discounted, the Vaio T Series 13 gets a $200 price cut and is available for $1,299. The biggest price cut has been for Acer Aspire S7 ultrabook, it’s price has come down from $1,649 to $1,299. Are the prices good enough to convince you to buy one?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Most Workplaces Still Use Internet Explorer, Microsoft Tool Lets You Mount ISOs for Windows XP, Windows Vista And Windows 7,

Japan is home to all sorts of weird and wonderful items, and why stop now? While I’ve enjoyed building models since I was a little kid, I’ve typically stuck to cars, motorcycles, airplanes, and the occasional robot. But in Japan, you can build a model of a fish. But this isn’t just any fish model, no. It’s a model that can be deconstructed into a meal. This is the fish that the guys at iFixit would order if they could.

When it arrives, the foot-long fish model looks like an ordinary Maguro tuna. But pull it apart and you’ll find all of the cuts of fish you might find on your dinner table. Though if you are into eating sushi, I can’t guarantee that these plastic pieces will taste as good as the real deal. The model even ships in a styrofoam container that makes it look like freshly-packed fish, along with a replica of a sushi knife and cutting table.

Not that I was planning on running out and buying one of these, but the ¥29,000 (~$240 USD) price tag has definitely eliminated any such thought that might have entered my mind. Though I do think I’ll have some spicy tuna rolls for lunch today.

[via Hobby Media (IT)]

This month the folks at Mercedes AMG Petronas will confirm their new team-up with Tata Communications for trackside connectivity enhancement for Formula One racing in the near future. With technology from Tata Communications, Mercedes AMD Petronas Fomula One Silver Arrow cars will be able to transfer real-time data from any Grand Prix environment to their headquarters in the UK. This bit of communication will be taking place three times faster than they’re able at the moment.

This system has Ross Brawn, Team Principal at Mercedes AMG Petronas commenting on how good it will be for them to have data transferred from the racetrack back to their factories in Brackley and Brixworth with the technology Tata Communications offers up. This solution is said by Tata Communications to be both swift and secure, both of these elements being rather vital to the operation of a Formula One race team in this day and age.

Tata Communications Managing Director of F1 Business Mehul Kapadia made it clear that because the modifications and improvements made to every car in this race during the year is essentially constant, real-time communication between the cars straight from the track back to headquarters for Mercedes AMD Petronas will prove to be valuable.

Tata Communications works with what is the world’s first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring to have circled the globe – and it still circles the globe, of course, working with the company’s network as part of 500,000 km of subsea cable and over 200,000 km of terrestrial network fibre. Having struck a deal last year with Formula One Management, Tata Communications shook hands on a multi-year technology service and marketing agreement. This deal will bring connectivity to all Formula One race locations through the future with its wholly-owned subsea fibre ring.

Have a peek in SlashGear’s own Car hub for more information on the state of the automotive industry and hit up our Mercedes tag portal for more on the larger world of that particular vehicle brand. Great technologies are afoot!

Mercedes AMD Petronas and Tata Communications team in Formula One data speed bid is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It wasn’t all bad news today for Nintendo as earlier today, the company reported its Wii U only sold 390,000 units in its previous quarter. Nintendo’s handheld business is still doing well in comparison, although Nintendo still isn’t completely satisfied with its performance.

Of course, we’re talking about the Nintendo 3DS as the company announced it had sold a total of 13.95 million 3DS units and 49.61 million software units in the last fiscal year globally. Even though those could be considered to be good, Nintendo is still not satisfied with how the handheld is performing outside of Japan. “Although evergreen titles such as New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Paper Mario: Sticker Star, released in this fiscal year, and Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7, released in last fiscal year, became hit titles, they did not generate sufficient sales momentum,” Nintendo said in a statement. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Draw Something 2 Launches In The US, North America To Receive Metallic Gray DualShock 3 Controller,

Baby sea turtles have an interesting way of moving across sand and into the ocean, and scientists have been studying these little creatures for quite a while. So much, in fact, that engineers are designing and building robots that replicate the movements of a baby sea turtle in order to better understand the origins of these animals.

The robot is called the FlipperBot, and it features two motor-driven flippers with flexible wrists that are similar to sea turtle wrists. The robot is designed to travel through malleable surfaces like sand, just like sea turtles, and these kids of robots could help engineers further develop robot technology that will allow robots to swim through water, as well as walk on land.

The FlipperBot is quite small, measuring in at about 7.5 inches long and weighing only two pounds. Scientists are using these kinds of newly-developed robots to better understand how turtle flippers work, as well as help researchers understand how sea turtles evolved to be able to walk on land, especially with limbs that were designed for swimming rather than walking.

Daniel Goldman, a physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, says that these kinds of experiments will also work with other animals who have a long history. He says that him and his team are “working with paleontologists on studying what the first animals moving on land were like with more paleontologically realistic robots.” He notes that most animals likely encountered sand and mud, rather than concrete and hard rock, bringing up the question of how animals moved through these malleable substances.

[via Tech News Daily]

New robots shed light on origins of sea turtles is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.