Hasta La Gadget!

This is Acer’s new giganta-smartphone, the Liquid S2, and it’s sitting on a fairly impressive secret: it’s the world’s first phone to pack a 4K-capable video camera.

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The great thing about all-in-one desktop computers is that they tend to take up less space compared to a regular desktop PC, and if you loved Acer’s earlier AIO desktop offering in the form of the Aspire Z3 that was announced back in June, perhaps the company’s Aspire U5 could be of some interest to you. The Aspire U5 is a newly announced all-in-one desktop PC from Acer and will sport a 23” Full HD touchscreen display with a wide viewing angle. (more…)

Acer Aspire U5 AIO Desktop PC Announced original content from Ubergizmo.

When a Kickstarter project goes well enough to inspire a sequel a few years down the road, it’s generally a positive sign. In the case of Juicies, a startup that originally built itself up on the back of a successful campaign to build 30-pin dock connector cables in a range of colours, the return to the crowdfunding site is about building cables for Apple’s new Lightning standard, as well as micro USB models that differentiate themselves in terms of design and materials.

The Juicies+ cable will juice up your devices using a combination of anodized aluminum to shield the circuitry of the connectors at each end, along with a woven cord of the variety that’s designed to prevent tangles and knots. The stated goal of this new design, according to Juicies founders Laurens Laudowicz and Hannes Reichelt, is to bring the cables we use to charge our devices every day up to snuff with the devices themselves in terms of design and craftsmanship.

Laudowicz and Reichelt are a split team working from Honolulu and Bremen, Germany. Laurens began the first Juicies project on his own with the original Kickstarter, but the two paired up quickly after and Hannes has been helming European sales and distribution of the product ever since. Reichelt is an Economics grad with experience working for Siemens doing marketing and market research in the Middle East, while Laudowicz is an entrepreneur with work experience as an antiques buyer and marketer. Despite sharing relatively little product development experience between them, the pair successfully built the original Juicies online business and now sells 30-pin cables, micro USB and USB extensions in a rainbow of colours.

Juicies+ is a sort of premium twist on the work they have already been doing, borrowing a page from makers of premium headphones, which often feature woven cable casing designs. Aside from offering a premium feel, woven cables are far less likely to knot or tangle with themselves or with one another, making them easier to stow hastily in a bag and then later recover.

The startup also needs to update its product for Apple’s current generation of mobile devices; Lightning is the prevailing standard on Apple iOS hardware now, and its use will likely occlude that of 30-pin entirely come September when Apple introduces new iPhone hardware. Accordingly, the Juicies+ team is going to be using Lightning connectors sourced from Apple via its MFI program to create its cables, which is the only way to guarantee compatibility with Apple devices. This could present one of the biggest potential risks for the project; Apple has been slower to provide MFI-certified parts to accessory-making partners, so there may be a bottleneck in terms of supply. It’s also the only authorized supplier of the Lightning connector acceptable for the MFI program.

The anticipated ship date for the Juicies+ cables is January 2014, but a big part of the production process lies outside of the project founders’ hands because of the required MFI certification, so that date could well slip, especially if there’s renewed interest in Lightning components from accessory makers in the wake of Apple’s anticipated September iPhone announcement. Still, the team has shown it can work with Apple’s MFI program and ship product at scale, so chances are backers will eventually get their money’s worth in this instance, even if it does take a bit longer than anticipated.

The other day we reported on rumors that Acer could be working on a sequel to its phablet, the Liquid S1, which according to the reports suggested the Liquid S2 moniker. Well it turns out that the rumors were true and Acer has officially announced their latest phablet device, the Liquid S2. (more…)

Acer Liquid S2 Phablet With 4K Video Capture Announced original content from Ubergizmo.

Sony is tipped to announce yet another two new concept imaging devices when IFA 2013 kicks off in Berlin next week. The pair of new ‘lens-camera’ devices which will arrive has already been spotted in the past – and they are the DSC-QX10 and the DSC-QX100 (whose user manual has already leaked out), where they happen to toy with the idea of being mounted onto a smartphone, while containing a built-in imaging sensor, Bionz processor, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, an SD memory card slot and of course, a battery.

Not only that, it seems that there are suggestions going around that Sony will christen these lens-cameras the ‘Smart Shot’, which is a mash-up of the words Smartphone and Cyber-Shot. The lenses will also see the incorporation of optical steadyshot stabilization so that even beginners can capture some decent looking shots. Of course, there was an earlier rumor that this particular camera accessory could be known as EspressOn. You know what the Bard has mentioned in the past, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, so we would like to think that regardless of whether it is called Smart Shot or EspressOn, it would still get the job done in a satisfactory manner.

Sony Lens Cameras Could Be Called “Smart Shot” original content from Ubergizmo.