Hasta La Gadget!

My daughter loves building things, it started with those little alphabet blocks, moved on to Legos, and has continued into the virtual world with her all out addiction to Minecraft. Of all the stuff she wastes time with, I find I really don’t mind these kinds of activities, heck.. maybe she’ll become an architect someday.

So whats new in building sets these days? Check out Laser Pegs, an interesting cross between Hasbro’s Lite Brite and Legos. Laser Pegs allow your kids to snap together all kinds of interesting models, that light up with vibrant LED lighting. The idea behind these nifty Laser Pegs is that by having the components made of clear plastic, you can see both the colored LED’s inside, as well as the wiring and little boards and resistors, this not only lights up everything you build, but gives your creations a cool, futuristic look.

There is a free associated app with Laser Pegs, that allows you to look up manuals, or even create, and share instructions on how to duplicate your original designs with other kids, and each set usually makes quite a few different things, in fact the Indy Car pictured above comes with instructions for 60 different projects.

So if you have a kid thats into building, and isn’t quite ready to break out the carpentry tools, Laser Pegs might be a fun alternative to other building sets we’ve had available for eons. Sets range in price from around 25 bucks to 60, and they have an a la carte shopping option on the Laser Pegs website for when you need a very specific  piece, for a special original build out.  Laser Peg sets are available at amazon.com.
[ Laser Pegs – a Bright Idea in Bulding copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

It’s no secret that Valve’s Steam digital gaming service holds gigantic sales throughout the year and discounts even the biggest games by 50% or more. This time around, we’re seeing probably the biggest sale of the year so far, which is Steam’s Summer Getaway Sale that is lasting 11 days throughout this month, with each day having its own set of discounted titles.

Headlining today’s sales is BioShock Infinite at 50% off for only $29.99. This specific deal will only last 24 hours, so the clock is ticking. You should be aware of four different types of Steam deals throughout this next week and a half or so. There are broad, store-wide discounts that older games receive; there are daily deals which last 24 hours; there are flash deals which only last a couple hours; and then there are community deals which are voted on by Steam users.

Obviously, the more broad store-wide deals usually aren’t that great of a deal, and usually deal with games that aren’t very popular. However, it’s the daily deals and flash deals that you’ll want to keep your eyes on. These deals only last a short amount of time, and usually consist of popular games that have deep discounts. Blink once and you’ll miss them.

However, if you’re like me and end up buying all of these cheap games but never play them because you have more important things to do, then we suggest hiding your wallets and implementing some self-control. It’s a hard thing to do when you can get Portal 2 for just a few dollars, but once you buy that first cheap game, it’s like a vicious cycle.

Of course, we’re not therapists and we’re not trying to advise you to be careful out in the crazy world of Steam sales — go crazy for all we care. Just be sure you’ll actually play them when you get them. Don’t end up like us, with a huge list of games that we’ve never played that we’ll never be able to sell again.

Steam’s Summer Getaway Sale underway: Hide your wallets is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

So, finally, Nokia has stopped teasing its flagship Lumia 1020 and let us event goers get some long awaited hands-on time with the thing. It’s definitely not your run-of-the-mill Windows Phone, but is that camera-centric kookiness enough to make the Lumia 1020 worth that $299 price tag? The jury’s still out on that one, but so far the 1020 definitely seems like a Windows Phone worth your consideration.

First impressions aren’t actually everything, but the 1020 is quite a looker… even if Nokia seems to be having trouble making up its mind in terms of industrial design. The Verizon-exclusive Lumia 928 features hard corners and a gently-sloping back, while the 925 (arguably the nicer looking of the two) is the first to introduce metal trim. The 1020 on the other hand sticks very close to the original design language of the Lumia 800 and 900, and that’s frankly a very welcome choice. I’d go as far to say that Lumia’s original looks are nearly iconic, but your mileage is going to vary there.

As a counterpoint, our (much less geeky) intern Eliza vehemently disagrees with me — according to her, it’s much too angular and looks like a business card. To each their own, I guess. Admittedly, the camera pod does get in the way when you pick up the 1020 thanks to its prominent protuberance on the device’s back, but it doesn’t seem like a deal breaker.

Considering just how large the 1020′s camera pod is, I expected the 1020 to be much heavier. In fact, the device was almost startlingly light — Nokia’s fondness for polycarbonate remains untempered, though I suspect the matte finish they’ve used this time around will make the 1020 a little more prone to scuffs and dings.

As is always the case when playing with these sorts of things in the field, it’s hard to really get a feel for performance, but swiping through menus and firing up applications was just as smooth as any other top-tier Windows Phone. The only bit of slowdown I noted was while fiddling with some of the camera settings, but that may just be a pre-production software issue acting up. Nokia representatives confirmed that the Lumia 1020 runs a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm chipset (though the people I spoke to wouldn’t specify which one), along with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. That’s quite a strong spec sheet for a Windows Phone, though the fact that Windows Phone 8 is generally a very lag-free OS to begin with certainly factors into the equation.

And then of course, there’s the camera. Nokia wouldn’t spend almost an entire hour talking about a camera if it wasn’t worth its salt, but the 1020′s 41-megapixel sensor really seems to deliver… the keyword there being “seems”. As you’d expect, the 1020 is a very snappy shooter, and the images it captured appeared incredibly crisp and bright on screen (perhaps to the point of mild over-saturation, but that’s really nothing new for an AMOLED display). Since none of hardware here was final though, Nokia wouldn’t allow to us transfer our photos off the 1020 for further fiddling so it’s hard to say just how good the images look on different displays or on paper.

Despite the Pro Camera app’s name, it was awfully easy to pick up after a few moments of playing. Tapping the icon brings up a series of concentric semi-circles, and sliding up and down each of lets users adjust exposure, shutter speed, iso, and focus. It’s an awfully intuitive scheme that Nokia has cooked up, especially since you’re able to immediately see on-screen what sort of effect those changes will have on the image you take. Nokia has also included a tutorial mode to give first-time users a better idea of what settings can be tweaked and how the sliding control scheme works, a welcome touch for non-photographers looking to spice up their shots.

Is the Lumia 1020 going to be for everyone? Obviously not. Can it succeed in a very competitive marketplace? It’s far too early to answer that question, but based on my time playing with it, there’s nothing there that would necessarily disqualify it from success.

Earlier today, our own John Biggs took Nokia to task for using its resources to create a device that focused on “theatrics”. I honestly couldn’t disagree more — I’m honestly no great camera connoisseur, Nokia didn’t just slap a big honking camera on a crappy phone. The hardware seems well-crafted, the Windows Phone experience is incredibly smooth, and that longstanding app gap is finally starting to close (albeit slowly). I can’t pass judgment until I actually play with the final device, but so far it seems like that camera is just icing on a cake that’s already pretty damned delicious.

Do you like privacy? Do you shun surveillance and eschew spam? Do you like simplicity? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’ll love DuckDuckGo.

Read more…

Earlier this year we heard about Lernstift, a concept for a pen that helps kids spell and write correctly by vibrating to point out mistakes. The folks behind this promising invention have now launched a fundraiser on Kickstarter. The questions I had when I first saw it remain unanswered though.

Inventor Falk Wolsky’s idea for the pen remains the same. Its basic functions are still to oversee the user’s spelling and the legibility of his handwriting. When it detects a mistake, it vibrates to alert the user. But with the launch of their fundraiser, Wolsky and his colleagues have revealed more about the hardware inside the pen. Lernstift has a motion sensor, a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a magnetometer. The pen’s processor will use these devices to create a 2D image of the user’s handwriting, which it will then analyze using a handwriting recognition software.

While the team is confident in the pen’s hardware, they’re still working on the best way to process the data that its sensors gather to ensure a quick and accurate response. They’ve also revealed that they’re not working on their own handwriting recognition engine and will instead license one from an established company. That should make it easier for Lernstift to be released and updated to support more languages; the pen will only be able to recognize English and German when it launches, but they supposedly have access to a database of over 40 languages.

Pledge at least £89 (~$135 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Lernstift as a reward. I have to say though, it’s not clear at the moment just how polished or far along they are with the pen. Notice how they didn’t demonstrate even the pen’s basic functions in their pitch video.

As I said in my previous post about the pen, I’m still not sold on its usefulness. It’s still not clear how it will help you find out the right spelling, form or grammar. Yes, it could buzz the moment you make a mistake, but what then? How do you find out what you’re supposed to do? I’m hopeful that Wolsky and his team will answer these questions soon. Also, do kids still use pens?