Hasta La Gadget!

The number of soldiers on both sides of WWII that were killed or went missing is just staggering. Now, the mystery surrounding one RAF pilot and what happened to him and his plane has been solved after 70 years. RAF flight Sergeant Dennis Copping climbed into his Kittyhawk P-40 aircraft in June 1942 to fly the plane to another airbase for repairs. He was never seen or heard from again.

The RAF long believed that Copping became disoriented during his flight and strayed off course. Recently an explorer working for an oil company came upon a very odd site in the Western Desert in Egypt. The explorer came upon a mostly intact and incredibly well preserved P-40 sitting on the ground in the desert.

The aircraft had some damage from the crash, for one the propeller was torn off and lying away from the aircraft. The plane also notably had what appeared to be bullet holes in the fuselage. It’s unclear if those bullet holes were the damage the pilot was taking the aircraft in to have repaired or if perhaps they are why the aircraft crashed in the desert. The aircraft was complete with its .50 cal machine guns and ammo and hasn’t been touched since the pilot left the aircraft sitting on the desert floor.

Indications are that the pilot survived the crash. The pilot’s parachute was found alongside the wreckage along with a makeshift shelter. However, the pilot’s remains are nowhere to be found. The theory is that the pilot tried to walk out of the desert and perished somewhere in the sands. The crash location is 200 miles from the nearest city.

[via Daily Mail]

If we’ve crossed paths in the past week, there’s a pretty good chance I’ve scanned you. This extends well beyond the human race, into the realms of animal, vegetable, plush toy and fruit bowl. Some subjects were too small to be scanned, some too fidgety and, in the case of my attempted 3D selfie, not nearly flexible enough. Such issues were mere roadblocks in my strange one-man journey to 3D-scan the world. I may have a problem. I admit it. For starters, I’m not completely sure what I plan on doing with all these scans, but while such questions are entirely logical, they’ve yet to curb my enthusiasm for the device. Sense is one of those propositions that seems too good to be true: a user-friendly, (relatively) portable 3D scanner capable of capturing objects up to 10 feet by 10 feet, and at a fraction of the price of the competition.

If the product is indeed what 3D Systems claims, it could fill a major hole in the consumer 3D-printing market. In recent years, 3D-printing companies have largely focused on the printers themselves, which have gotten cheaper and easier to use. At the same time, the race to dominate the category has often caused companies to ignore the question of how those without extensive CAD experience can create 3D files in the first place. MakerBot unveiled its solution back at SXSW: the $1,400 Digitizer, a rotating, desktop scanning bed capable of capturing objects up to eight inches by eight inches. 3D Systems’ Sense takes a wholly different approach: This is a $400 handheld scanner that can digitize an entire human being.%Gallery-slideshow123207%

Filed under: Peripherals

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With the holiday weekend fast approaching, various companies and retailers have been rushing to make their deals public. There’s bound to be a lot of shopping craze during the weekend, particularly on Black Friday. We’re seeing more and more Black Friday deals being listed with every passing day and Samsung has something that it wants to offer its customers as well. The Korean giant isn’t shaving off hundreds of dollars of its products, rather its going to offer discounted movies through Samsung Hub on Black Friday.

The folks at Sammobile have heard from the company’s PR folks that during the Black Friday weekend, from November 29th to December 2nd, over 50 of the “best movies of the year” will be up for grabs at reduced prices in the Samsung Hub on the company’s TV sets and mobile devices. Its the holiday weekend, people are bound to kick back, relax and perhaps catch up on that hit movie they’ve constantly been hearing about. Prices for the movies are said to be as low as $3.99. Pricing for the titles will be revealed on the first day of the holiday weekend through the Samsung Hub and the Media Hub app on the company’s smart TVs. Though if you’d rather purchase the company’s devices at a steal, I suggest you camp out at your local retailer.

Samsung Black Friday Offer: Discounted Movies On Samsung Hub original content from Ubergizmo.

ZTE is planning its own smartwatch, the Chinese company’s smartphone marketing chief has confirmed, aiming the companion wearable at the “mainstream market” but initially only working with ZTE handsets. The wrist-worn gadget will offer similar functionality to Samsung’s opinion-splitting Galaxy Gear but at a more affordable price point, Lu Qianhao told Digits, though launch plans […]

In early October, we brought you our thoughts on the seven-inch Kindle Fire HDX, of which John is a huge fan.

Today we bring you the seven-incher’s big brother, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.

In terms of Amazon’s evolution as a hardware (and specifically tablet) company, the Fire HDX 8.9 is a markedly improved device from previous generations. It’s thinner, lighter at just 13 ounces, and more powerful with a 2.2 GHz quad-core processor and improved software.

But how does it match up to the competition this holiday season?

John seems to think that this next-gen Kindle Fire has finally achieved “productivity status,” moving from a reader on steroids to a full-fledged computing device. I’m not as convinced, but I also haven’t been able to spend quite as much time with these Fire HDX tablets as him.

Would either of us save $100 and choose the HDX 8.9 over an iPad Air? Probably not, based almost entirely on the iPad’s ecosystem and App Store.

However, both of us feel that the smaller size tablets are a better idea for the average consumer.

Unless you require a larger screen for reading, or use the tablet almost exclusively to watch movies and TV, a smaller device like the seven-inch HDX or the iPad mini with Retina are more portable and comfortable options.