Looking for some desktop companions for your wind-up Pac-Man? I can’t think of a better thing than these wind-up Space Invaders.
This pair of Space Invaders will scurry across your desktop, but unlike their forefathers, they’re totally harmless. You see, they’ve had their laser cannons removed so no matter how much they skitter back and forth, they can’t destroy your bases.
The set includes both a pink and a green Space Invader, and sells for just $12.99(USD) over on ThinkGeek.
Most companies refresh their products on an annual basis, carefully timing development and release schedules to match consumer demand, product obsolescence and component upgrades. It’s the norm, an expected pattern that most PC, smartphone and tablet manufacturers follow. Razer, however, completely ignores this cycle, as exemplified by its Blade line of gaming laptops — already on its third generation in less than two years. This would be less impressive if the firm wasn’t a relative newcomer to the game; before it announced the Blade, Razer was known primarily for creating keyboards, gaming mice and console controllers. A fully fledged gaming PC was a jarring departure for the humble peripheral maker.
Even so, here we are: reviewing the third-generation Razer Blade gaming laptop. This, too, is a departure from what we’ve grown to expect from the company — a smaller, thinner device bereft of the previous model’s signature Switchblade interface. For some PC manufacturers, a 14-inch machine might be just another SKU in the catalog. But for Razer, it’s almost a mark of progress: not only is the Blade popular enough to necessitate successive generations, but also multiple form factors. It’s also the company’s lowest-priced laptop yet, not to mention its first to include Intel’s new fourth-generation CPU — but at $1,800 for the base model, it still isn’t cheap. Read on to see if the new Blade has enough charm to be worth its lofty price tag.
Gallery: 14-inch Razer Blade review
Filed under: Gaming
The term “bullet time” has been loosely applied to camera-based projects that take on what’s been made most famous back in the original Matrix movie and spread wide with film, television, and even advertisement spots before and since. What we’re seeing this week as a Hack-a-day project that takes the concept and makes it a do-it-yourself project. All you need to DIY is a fan, a dimmer switch, a GoPro camera, and some fireworks!
Of course the fireworks are optional, but what better way to demonstrate an oddity like this than with a controlled bit of demolition? The first video you’re seeing here shows how the fan and the GoPro camera were made friendly with a control switch. The dimmer here allows the fan to move at a speed that can keep the camera in business with its ability to capture video at high speed.
While this certainly isn’t the first time we’ve encountered this camera taking on an extreme mission, it’s certainly one of the strangest places we’ve seen it mounted. GoPro is a brand that prides itself on being able to roll through extreme conditions and capture video from the oddest of angles – but we’d bet its intended use-case list never included a ceiling fan.
Next you’ll see the camera on the fan with the dimmer capturing a lovely 4th of July preparation in firework form. Have a peek and see what you make of it.
And remember – as it is with all DIY projects, especially when they have “hack” in the title, use caution if you decide to make it a reality for yourself. This isn’t the work of amateurs, no matter how rudimentary it looks. You don’t want a GoPro flying at your head at break-neck speed, no matter how awesome the resulting video would be!
Bullet Time goes home-made with a ceiling fan and a rocket is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
You may have already read our Sony Xperia Z Ultra hands-on last week, but since then we’ve also been able to spend a tiny bit more time with a pre-production unit (with firmware build 14.1.B.1.277). Instead of going over again how hilariously large this 6.4-inch, pen-friendly phone is, this time we’ll focus on some early benchmark results, camera performance and Sony’s very own UX features.
As you’ll see after the break, many of the benchmark scores aren’t too far off from what we saw on the MDP phone with the same Snapdragon 800 SoC, and the final units should be optimized with higher numbers. While we didn’t manage to get CF-Bench and Quadrant running on the phone, the higher-than-before 3DMark score did cheer us up, meaning either Sony or Qualcomm’s managed to fine tune the latter’s new Adreno 330 GPU.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony
While only over just a year old, the HTC One S was quickly overtaken by newer devices, but it remains as one of our favorite mid-range devices. Sadly, HTC has confirmed that the device will no longer be receiving Android updates, officially putting the device in the archives as an obsolete handset.
HTC told us that “the HTC One S will not receive further Android OS updates and will remain on the current version of Android and HTC Sense.” The company is aware of the “disappointment” that they most likely have caused on users of this handset, but they reassure that “customers should feel confident” about the design of the HTC One S, and how it’s “optimized with an amazing camera and audio experiences.”
Yes, HTC, the camera and the audio are totally worth not having anymore Android updates, especially when the phone was release just last year. The sad part is that users who bought this phone when it first came out are just now in the second-half of their contract with the handset, and can’t upgrade to a newer phone until April 2014.
This means that HTC is leaving some users hanging out to dry. We can understand if they discontinue support for much older phones, but for a device that is still under contract for a lot of users, we’re surprised to see the company shut it down so soon in its lifetime.
The HTC One S sported a 4.3-inch AMOLED display with a 540×960 resolution. On the inside there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. A 1,650mAh battery sits in the back sealed in from user-accessibility, which isn’t surprising, especially with HTC’s new unibody design with the One series. I suppose this is the curtain call for the One S, but thanks to the HTC One, we know that better phones lie in our future.
HTC One S abandoned: No more Android updates for 2012 phone is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Through the eyes of an adult, a bed is a spot to rest, a refuge for sleep, and a place to recharge before work the next day. But to a kid, a bed really only has one useful purpose: as a trampoline. And since jumping on the bed is rarely allowed, Snurk made this wonderful matching duvet and pillowcase set that turns any mattress into a bouncy playground.
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