Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier this year ASUS announced a new tablet, the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity which was recently spotted at the FCC, but it seems that ASUS might have a new Transformer tablet to announce, thanks to a post on its Facebook page in which the teaser reads, “We Transform Your Mobility” with a countdown to IFA 2013. Unfortunately for us the teaser doesn’t tell us much, although it is speculated that this new tablet will focus more on mobility, which could mean it could possibly be both thinner and lighter at the same time.

In any case ASUS’ announcement will coincide with a lot of other announcements made by other companies, such as Samsung who will be unveiling the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear, and Sony who will unveil the their upcoming Xperia Z1 handset as well, meaning that ASUS had better have a product worthy of stealing the show, or at least leaving a good impression. So far ASUS’ Transformer tablets have been relatively successful in the Android tablet market and it will be interesting to see what they have for us this time round.

ASUS Teases New Transformer Tablet original content from Ubergizmo.

BlackBerry is not doing as well as they had anticipated, with reports of the BlackBerry Q10 sales being labeled as “dismal”, and it looks like even carriers aren’t giving BlackBerry a break either. According to rumors, word has it that T-Mobile is looking to remove BlackBerry 10 smartphones from their stores due to the devices not doing well in terms of sales. This comes from a CrackBerry forum post in which an alleged T-Mobile employee was quoted as saying, “My manager told me the other day that all blackberry 10 devices will now be only available via direct ship. I work at a corporate store in Cleveland I have to go check the Email but I’m not sure if this has just affected NorthEast Ohio.”

Other alleged T-Mobile employees have “confirmed” the poster’s message, claiming that other T-Mobile stores in the US have already begun removing stock from their stores. Given that T-Mobile was one of the first supporters of the BlackBerry 10 platform, we guess the poor sales of BlackBerry 10 devices did not make good business sense in the end. Is this the beginning of the downfall of BlackBerry’s new operating system? Or will we see it pick up again in the future?

T-Mobile Rumored To Be Removing BlackBerry 10 Devices From Stores Due To Poor Sales original content from Ubergizmo.

Samsung is getting ready to pull the curtain on its curious Galaxy Gear smartwatch (well, among other things) in just a few days, but what’s a major product unveiling these days without a slew of last-minute leaks to ruin the surprise? To that end, VentureBeat recently got what may be the first real glimpse of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear and it’s, well, pretty bizarre.

Unlike most of the other smartwatches that have exploded onto the scene these past few years — think the Pebble, the MetaWatch, or even Sony’s family of wrist-worn gadgets, the Galaxy Gear is shaping up to be a real whopper. VB reports the square display plus the bezel that runs around it means the watch itself measures about 3 inches diagonal, and images culled from an internal promotional video depict a device that looks like a Galaxy S4 that got nailed with a shrink ray. So much for subtlety. I’m no watch nerd (I leave that sort of thing to John) but I can’t imagine bigger always equals better when it comes to stuff you wear on your person.

It looks like a Galaxy S4 that got nailed with a shrink ray

In typical Samsung fashion though, the company has apparently packed the thing to the gills with a 4-megapixel camera nestled inside in the Gear’s strap, a WiFi radio, speakers, and a microphone so users can deliver S Voice commands to a connected Samsung smartphone.

Perhaps the biggest bummer is that the Galaxy Gear may only be able to run for 10 hours before having to be recharged. That’s just about respectable for modern smartphones (though we should all be demanding more longevity from Samsung and its ilk), but who wants to worry about charging their watch that often? And manufacturer provided battery stats tend to be optimistic too, so that anemic battery could spell trouble for early adopters.

Throw in a handful of “pre-loaded Android apps” and an apparently substantial focus on mobile fitness and health tracking, and you’ve got an ambitious device that seems to have an identity crisis. Is it for your average smartphone nerd? Fitness buffs? Both? VentureBeat’s report provides the clearest look at the Galaxy Gear to date, but I’m looking forward to Samsung trying to explain its rationale for why people would actually need something like this.

If you’ll allow me to wax personal, the reason I’ve stuck with a device like the Pebble instead of dumping it in favor of a more robust gadget is because it’s focused on doing a small number of things well. Notifications? Taken care of. Changing tracks over Bluetooth while I’m driving? Works like a charm. With the Galaxy Gear, Samsung has added plenty of complexity to the smartwatch formula, which also means there are more bits that just may not live up to people’s expectations.

Then again, it’s not like the Korean electronics giant doesn’t have the resources to go out on a limb like this every once in a while. Strange first steps like this one often beget staggering successes down the road — for all we know, Samsung may flex its design and production muscles to becomethe de facto smartwatch maker within a few years. For now though, I’m still not convinced that we’re looking at the full Galaxy Gear picture here, so stay tuned for our coverage of Samsung’s IFA bonanza later this week.

Damn the torpedoes and pass the hoisin sauce, it’s The Shanghai Duck! This deliciously decorated passenger version of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s huge (and hugely popular) inflatable yellow rubber ducks is making waves, though for some they’re waves of nausea.

Apple is rumored to be working on its own smartwatch which is widely known as the iWatch. What if we were to consider that the iWatch isn’t exactly a smartwatch, but instead its the name for the company’s much rumored full fledged TV set. Apple has shown obvious interest in the TV market, in an interview with NBC back in 2012, CEO TIm Cook said that TV is “an area of intense interest” for the company. Steve Jobs’ aim to build a completely integrated easy to use TV has been quoted in his biography. So what if its just a marketing ploy by the company to divert attention from the real product it is working on, something which it hasn’t made before, a HD television set. This theory is put forward by Jonny Haskins of Pixel Lounge.

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iWatch Might Be Apple’s Much Rumored TV Set original content from Ubergizmo.