Hasta La Gadget!

Being creative in this day and age is even easier than ever before, considering the number of options that you have on hand. The introduction of technology in the form of smartphones, tablets, digital tablets, and the ilk make the arts even more interesting. Enter this huge “piano” that you can see in the video above – where it was created by a Microsoft team in Germany who used a total of 88 Surface RT tablets. Each of these tablets were specially programmed to play just one key (talk about overkill!), where this massive digital “piano” is the coolest musical instrument on the block at the moment.

It just goes to show how versatile that Microsoft’s tablet can be when it has been specially repurposed in a manner that one would not have expected in the first place. Of course, those with longer and more reliable memories will be able to recall the situation a few months back when Microsoft displayed their Windows 8 operating system that ran on an Asus tablet, poking fun at the iPad for doing something as ostentatious, touting the iPad to be nearly a toy compared to the real man’s tablet which runs on Windows 8. Karma can return to bite back, hard!

Giant “Piano” Made Up Of Surface RT Tablets original content from Ubergizmo.

According to Bloomberg, the folks over at Amazon are currently testing out a new wireless network which would enable their customers to stay connected to the Internet. This new wireless network undergone testing in Cupertino, California, where it made use of spectrum that were controlled by satellite communications company Globalstar Inc., and this particular test was performed in a hush-hush manner simply because it was a private affair.

This just goes to show how Amazon, right now the world’s largest e-commerce company, is about to make a move beyond being just a Web destination and hardware manufacturer. It makes plenty of sense though, as staying put where you are would not serve you well in the long run – and to see Amazon take a gander at the underlying technology required to get folks hooked up to the Internet is definitely encouraging. Perhaps it could be a start of something new that competition in the same sector will see us consumers win out in the end? When approached about this private wireless network test, Amazon declined to comment on the matter. Amazon is not alone in this boat, as Google did secure its own communications capabilities after it bid for wireless spectrum and laid the foundation for high-speed, fiber-based broadband networks across 17 cities.

Amazon Tests Out Own Wireless Network, Says Bloomberg original content from Ubergizmo.

Having a company make a U turn on a particular decision can be a welcome move or otherwise, depending on the kind of reaction that it provoked originally. Well, Pandora has plans of their own sometime next month – that is, to lift the 40-hour mobile listening limit which was first established in February earlier this year. This particular move was announced by CFO Mike Herring.

Mike Herring shared, “When we introduced the 40 hour mobile listening limit, we were confident that our scale — over 7 percent of total radio listening and Pandora’s number one ranking in most major markets — would allow us to take this action without impacting our key monetization initiatives in driving the disruption of the radio advertising market and driving our mobile advertising leadership. As our results have shown, the continued strong growth in our advertising revenue allowed us to cover the increased royalty costs with dollars left over to invest back into the business. With these tools in hand, and insight into how they work, we are resetting our levers in September.”

This means effective from September 1st onwards, there will be no more cap, so those of you who cannot live without music wherever you go, regardless of the situation, you would most probably be jumping around and whooping with joy.

Pandora Set To Lift Free Cap original content from Ubergizmo.

As part of our Blended Family Friday series, each week we’re spotlighting a different stepfamily to learn how they successfully blended their two families together. Our hope is that by telling their stories, we’ll bring you closer to blended family bliss in your own life!

This Friday, we’d like to introduce you to Beth and Dominic’s family. We know how hard it can be to blend two families as one, so we had to admire Beth’s honesty when she first reached out to let us know she was interested in sharing her story. “I went in to our relationship blindly assuming that if Dominic and I loved each other, then everything would just work out,” she told us. “I was wrong.”

So how does the family make it work today? Below, Beth tells us how she and her husband have strived to bring their family closer through the years and what makes her most proud of her kids today.

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