Hasta La Gadget!

If the new studio at Fox News, with its big-ass touchscreens, looks a little bit like Minority Report, that’s because it’s just like Minority Report.

Oblong, the same company that helped create the technological interfaces seen in the futuristic movie, outfitted the new studio with a product called Mezzanine, powered by G-Speak, allowing Shepard Smith to drag and drop videos on a wall like he’s directing an orchestra.

John Underkoffler, Chief Scientist at Oblong, confirmed Fox News’ use of the Mezzanine product to TechCrunch, calling “the whole undertaking a laudably ambitious undertaking on the part of Fox News.”

You’ll notice at At 2:47 in this video, as well as 3:25, that Shepard Smith uses a 38-foot remote-controlled video wall manipulated by a white hand-held wand tool. This is Mezzanine.

Mezzanine is a product created by Oblong Industries meant to be a conference room technology, letting users control and manipulate every pixel in the room, from the massive screens in the Fox News studio to the wifi-connected iPhones, iPads and laptops in the room. With the wand, the same one you see Shepard Smith waving around in the video, you can drag and drop info, zoom, manipulate, and edit information as you go.

“Fox News Deck installation is the most publicly visible (permanent) deployment of Oblong’s technology in general, and of the Mezzanine product in particular, to date,” said Underkoffler.

MG Siegler, who’s used the technology before, calls it the future of computing and refers to the Mezzanine Wand as a WiiMote on steroids.

But Mezzanine isn’t the end product. Underkoffler, speaking at TC Italy less than a month ago, explained that Oblong wants to give a soul to your devices and to the interface. G-Speak, the spatial operating system behind all of Oblong’s products, is the path towards that soul.

For now, Mezzanine requires a wand, but eventually technology that can already sense gloves and hands will be commodotized, and G-Speak will power a new generation of hand-waving computer conductors. Knowing that, it’s clear that Shepard Smith’s 38-foot video wall is far cooler than the giant touchscreens filling up the Fox News studio.

Here’s a look at MG’s video from a while back:

We think it’s safe to say now that the iPhone 5C dust has settled, the device may not be as popular as Apple perceived it to be when it was first announced. One thing we know for sure is the iPhone 5C’s case has been the butt of many jokes ever since it was announced, although some app developers have come up with some interesting new ways to interact with the iPhone 5C’s case. (more…)

iPhone 5C Case Can Now Be Used To Play Connect Four original content from Ubergizmo.

Titanfall is an upcoming online multiplayer FPS for the Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. It seems to be one of the better launch titles for the Xbox One, putting an emphasis on agility and speed while rockin’ some sweet-looking mecha. A Japanese custom toy maker appears to have the same strengths. He managed to make a replica of the game’s giant robot, even though the game isn’t out yet.

I could very well be mistaken, but I’m guessing the toy maker uses the moniker nammkkyys. What I gleaned from his blog is that he based his replica on the publicly available trailers and images of Titanfall, as well as the large Titan bust that was shown at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. What makes his feat even more impressive is that he made it from scratch; it’s not a mod of an existing action figure. I think he took a few liberties here and there, but overall he did a great job. The action figure is about 9.5″ tall, which by the toy maker’s estimate makes it a 1/30 scale replica.

Check out nammkkyys’ blog for more images of the impressive Titan action figure. Be sure to check his previous posts to see his work in progress images; those will give you a better idea of his skill and dedication. Seeing as Respawn Entertainment i.e. Titanfall’s developer itself was the one who spread the word about nammkkyys’ work, I wouldn’t be surprised if he scores a free copy of the game for his work.

[via Game Informer]

Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2 recently received a Game of the Year Edition, which means those of you who have yet to buy the game can do so while also getting all of its previously released downloadable content. Just because Borderlands 2 has a Game of the Year Edition doesn’t mean Gearbox Software is done with the game’s downloadable content as a new Halloween-themed DLC will be available starting on October 22. (more…)

Borderlands 2 Gets In The Halloween Spirit With New DLC On Oct. 22 original content from Ubergizmo.

Last year, we heard the amazing story of Saroo Brierley, the Indian "lost child" who used Google Earth to find his way home after 25 years. This stirring video produced by Google features Brierley telling the story in his own words. It’s pretty crushing.

Read more…