The average BMW driver may not often take their Bimmer out to the track, but those who do can now get some free iOS assisted coaching. The company’s BMW M Laptimer app tracks vehicle throttle, steering, braking and engine data and maps it to a pre-defined or user created track, analyzing the …
DVRs have made all our lives better, that’s a verifiable fact. But fast forwarding through our DVRs is an inexact science, sometimes we skip too far and have to slowly rewind with awkward button combinations. Other times we’re too fearful of faster forwarding that we cut it off with too much left to go. No worries. Lifehacker put together a list of ways to create a secret automatic commercial-skipping button on your DVR. Clean.
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[CEATEC 2013] Robots in Japan? Well, nothing surprising there. Sure, we have managed to talk about robots which are involved in a far more serious business than something as superficial as you can see above, but you know what they say about being serious in life without getting any kind of “play” thrown into the mix! I was walking by some of the smaller booths over at CEATEC this year, and managed to stumble upon this cute little Nissin Cup Noodle. Before I could ask what the heck was it doing there, and whether I could hand over 200 yen to help it stave off my hunger pangs, the “Cup Noodle” sprang into action – and of course, life!
It sports a couple of red LEDs for its eyes, and have three rectangular lights across its chest that will light up randomly. The head folds up, while the arms will open to a 45-degree angle (or thereabouts, I do not have protractor with me to figure out just what the exact angle is), and the legs will have enough motor strength to give it a boost in the right direction. The motor noises were rather loud, but nothing that makes it end up as irritating. Unfortunately, there was no price tag attached to it, but it would make for a good prank at the office, although you have been forewarned that a hungry man is an angry man.
This Nissin Cup Noodle Has Touched The Allspark! original content from Ubergizmo. 
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With Wi-Fi devices we can watch our pets from afar, we can call them and tell them to come
home, and we can even play with them from a distance. Starting this
November, we’ll be able to feed them from wherever we are with Pintofeed, The Intelligent Pet Feeder. Our pets can now have virtual
owners….
[CEATEC 2013] There are just some things in Japan that are huge locally, and the rest of the world has yet to catch on. I am quite sure that some folks in the English speaking world have picked up Japanese for the sake of playing titles such as Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest, or even Mother on the Game Boy in the past. Well, this time around, we managed to catch hold of the Dragon Quest Metal Slime smartphone by the folks over at NTT docomo, although the device comes in a shiny form factor that proves it is far more metal as compared to the traditionally loved slime.
Not only that, to make it look a whole lot more exclusive, the Dragon Quest Metal Slime smartphone happened to be residing within the safe confines of a transparent plastic box, which means that there is no way we could break it out to touch and play with it without being sent to the nearby police station. Of course, there is another allure to the smartphone that projects a psychological image of it being valuable – just place it atop a pile of (fake) gold coins that are overflowing out of a treasure chest, and you’ve got quite the winner here.
NTT docomo Showcases Dragon Quest Metal Slime Smartphone original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The United States government has filed charges against thirteen members of the hacking collective Anonymous, according to Reuters. The alleged members of the group were hit with a grand jury indictment today on charges of various hackery said to have taken place as part of Operation Payback. The indictment took place in a U.S. District […]
[CEATEC 2013] All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and the folks over at Mazda have definitely realized that. Sure, they are pretty serious with their Mazda Connect system as well as Heads Up Cockpit, but there also needs to be a balance of play as well, and this comes in the form of the Shakin’ Racer smartphone app. There really isn’t that much to it other than the fact that the Shakin ‘ Racer app would make full use of the gyroscope in your mobile device to detect just how much vibration it is experiencing at the moment.
Up to 4 visitors to the Mazda booth were handed out smartphones with the app preloaded, and the “racecourse” was projected onto a large screen so that everyone is able to have a bird’s eye view of the entire situation. Once the light turned green, it signalled the moment to burn some of the proverbial rubber on the asphalt! That would involved a healthy amount of vigorous shaking using your hand, and it is a race of endurance as well as strength, so make sure you have had a breakfast for champions before giving it a go! I am quite sure that there is an optimal way to figure out just how much shaking is required to hit top speed.
Mazda Shakin’ Racer App Gives Your Arm A Workout original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Rockstar’s “around the clock” work addressing the issues surrounding GTA Online could pay off soon. The developer promised that a title update is in the works and may be available “as soon as tomorrow,” in an update to yesterday’s trouble-shooting post. So if you can hold out just a bit longer, …
Three million dollars in the bank, a new name – after a little trademark tussling with Motorola – and less than a month from shipping: things have suddenly become very exciting for Narrative, the freshly rebranded Memoto lifelogging camera project. After raising more than eleven times the target amount in its initial Kickstarter campaign, hardware […]
Late last month we reported on the possibility of Galaxy Note 3 being region locked. What this means basically is that a region locked Galaxy Note 3 will only be good for SIMs issued by carriers working in that particular region. For example, if someone buys a Note 3 locked to the Americas region, they won’t be able to use a SIM card from another manufacturer in another country, they’ll have to rely on roaming provided by their carrier back home.
A Galaxy Note 3 user contacted a Samsung rep regarding this region locked and asked for an explanation, it was provided to them by the representative. Apparently the rep let something slip about Samsung’s future plans, which presumably includes rolling out region locking for older devices such as Galaxy S3 and Note 2 through Android 4.4 update. So even if the device has been activated in that particular region with a supported SIM card, customers won’t be able to use the device on any other carrier says the rep, which is going to be a nuisance for those who travel a lot and usually use local SIMs in every different country. One can 0nly fathom the number of users that will be locked out of their devices once this update hits. Google is expected to announce Android 4.4 KitKat later this month, no word on its release date just yet.
Samsung Region Lock Could Extend To Older Devices With Android 4.4 original content from Ubergizmo. 
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