Hasta La Gadget!

A rare treat this week as you can hear the TechCrunch team react to breaking gadget news (the Steam Controller, to be specific) live as it unfolds. It’s like being inside our brains without the echoes and cobwebs. We also cover the big Surface 2 reveal, Steam OS, the Steam Box announcements, Adobe’s Mighty hardware and BlackBerry’s very bad quarter.

This week, we have a very special episode of the Gadgets Podcast with a ragtag team of lovable characters, including myself – Darrell Etherington – Chris Velazco and special guests Frederic Lardinois and TCTV Producer Steve Long, so you just know it’s going to be the heartwarming comeback story of a lifetime.

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here, as well as the TechCrunch Droidcast.

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Intro Music by Rick Barr.

Sometimes you just need a dedicated device to play those physical movie discs. Sure you can buy a PS3 or PS4 or Xbox One, but if you just want to watch some Blu-rays, or aren’t a gamer, or have a friend/relative who just wants to watch movies, this Sony 3D Blu-ray Player is a great deal, and also packs in Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. You get $15 in Amazon Video Credit as well, though it’s tied to specific Sony movies. [Amazon]

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There are few things more heartbreaking for an editor than turning the lights off on a publication. Unfortunately, today marks the second time I’ve had to perform that unrewarding task. And while I plan to make good on my promise to take what we’ve learned here at Distro and transfer it to Engadget at large, I’m no less disheartened to have to flip the switch.

When Tim Stevens asked me to take the reins of what was then referred to as Project X, I was skeptical. It was the summer of 2011, just over a year since the release of the first iPad, and tablet magazine publishing was largely an untested market. Sure, mainstream media was investing massive amounts of money in the space — we’re looking at you, Rupert — but part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that turning a blog into a magazine (digital or otherwise) was a step back, not a step forward.

Filed under: Tablets

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A company can’t just make a product and not market it. Regardless of how amazing the product is, companies have to have a marketing strategy, which usually includes running advertisements on a wide variety of mediums both online and offline. Marketing isn’t just limited to advertising, sales promotions, product placements in TVs and movies and various other factors are included in it as well. Big companies spend big on marketing, and according to one analyst, Samsung might lead the pack in the technology sector this year by spending up to $13 billion on marketing alone.

Analyst Benedict Evans claims that Samsung’s marketing expenditure will reach an all time high in this particular year, with the Korean giant spending a staggering $13 billion dollars. Try and wrap your head around this figure, its more than what Google paid to wholly acquire Motorola Mobility, its more than the entire market value of HTC, its nearly enough to buy BlackBerry almost three times over. It goes without saying that this is a huge marketing budget, one that can only be rivaled by Apple. Evans predicts that if Samsung is able to repeat last year’s growth, it is on track to spend $4.5 billion on marketing alone in the fourth fiscal quarter.

Samsung To Spend $13 Billion On Marketing This Year [Analyst] original content from Ubergizmo.

Intel might not be jumping into the wearable technology market any time soon, but it is putting its weight, and chequebook, behind an established contender. The company announced today that Intel Investments, the Santa Clara based chip maker’s investment arm, has made a “significant” investment in Recon Instruments. It recently launched Recon Jet glasses, which were originally unveiled back at Google I/O 2013. While Recon Jet glasses might look a lot like Google Glass, they’re actually quite different.

With a dualcore processor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, movement sensors, GPS, HD camera and components from Android OS, Recon Jet allows users to film and track their movements as well as upload the data online. Its actually called the world’s first consumer Heads-up Display for sports. The company claims that up till now it has sold more than 50,000 HUD units around the world. Intel’s investment in Recon will help fund its product development, global sales expansion and marketing. Recon will also benefit from Intel Capital’s “expertise” in manufacturing, operations and technology. Both Recon and Intel Capital are tight-lipped on the amount of this investment, no estimate has been rumored. Intel has already made a similar investment in Thalmic Labs, a company that’s working on wearable technology as well.

Intel Makes ‘Significant’ Investment In Google Glass Rival original content from Ubergizmo.