Hasta La Gadget!

If you use any of the Google Nexus devices, like the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, or Nexus 5, it seems that there is a bug/exploit floating out there that has the ability to either reboot your phone, disable your network connection temporarily, or crash your messaging app. This is due to a flood of Class 0 SMS messages that are being sent to your phone, which we guess sounds familiar to DDoS attacks on computers, except that this will be for your phones. This bug was discovered by IT administrator Bogdan Alecu. According to his findings, it seems that non-Nexus devices appear to be safe, although Alecu admits that he has yet to test it out on a wide variety of devices yet, although so far, so good.

While it is unknown how widespread this problem is, Google has told the folks at PCWorld that they are looking into the exploit but they are unclear as to when a patch to fix the issue might be released, stating, “We thank him for bringing the possible issue to our attention and we are investigating.” However it seems that the good news is that there is a firewall app in the Google Play store called Class0Firewall which reportedly does the trick protecting against such attacks, so until Google releases a patch, this is an app you might be interested in checking out.

Google’s Nexus Devices Susceptible To SMS Bug That Causes Phones To Reboot original content from Ubergizmo.

If there’s one drawback to a luxury phone is that apart from its premium materials on the outside, typically under the hood there’s really not much to boast about. We’ve seen companies such as Vertu and Tag Heuer release luxury phones in the past, and now joining them would be the Antares, a smartphone designed by the folks at the Tonino Lamborghini Group hailing from Italy, who pride themselves in the creation of luxury accessories.

As you can see in the image above, the Antares smartphone does not try to be thin or sleek, but sports some interesting curves and lines which we guess could be likened to those of a super car, like a Lamborghini for example. Its body is made from stainless steel with some leather placements, and will come in a solid aluminum box to top it off. Under the hood the Antares smartphone will pack a 1.5GHz quad-core chipset with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage with microSD card support, a 4” Gorilla Glass display with unknown display resolution, a 13MP camera and will run on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

For music lovers out there, the Antares smartphone will also feature a built-in amplifier and speakers which are apparently manufactured by Yamaha. Priced at around $4,000, it will be making its way to Russia and China starting in December, and those living in the US, UK, and Italy will have to wait until the Spring of 2014.

Antares Luxury Smartphone Unveiled original content from Ubergizmo.

There are those who face extreme disability to the point where they are only able to control their wheelchair by puffing into a straw, also known as sip-and-puff where the user will be able to move and stop their wheelchairs using their breath. However over at Georgia Tech, researchers have recently found a way which could be more efficient than using straws, and this is through the use of the person’s tongue. The school has developed a wearable Tongue Drive System which will allow those who are paralyzed to control their wheelchair just from their tongue, which is reportedly faster compared to using straws.

However this method would require that the person wear a magnetic tongue piercing which is used as a joystick, but the upside is that unlike sip-and-puff, this does not place anything in front of the wearer’s face and would use less equipment, meaning that their entire setup is not as bulky as before. As it stands Georgia Tech’s Tongue Drive System is being trialed at hospitals and labs, although the researchers are hoping to introduce this system on a broader scale in the future.

Georgia Tech Unveils Tongue Driven Wheelchair For The Disabled original content from Ubergizmo.

For the most part, receiving software updates is something to look forward to because this usually involves bug fixes, performance improvements, and sometimes even new features as well. Unfortunately it seems that Android 4.4 KitKat might not necessarily be the update the video lovers might be looking forward to. According to a study conducted by OptoFidelity, it has been found that video playback on Android 4.4 KitKat is actually worse compared to playback on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

The study was conducted with two tablets, the original Nexus 7 and the 2013 version of the Nexus 7, both which were compared before the update and after the update, with videos playing back at 30fps and 60fps at 720p and 1080p resolutions. Interestingly enough the study found that the original Nexus 7 tablet managed to offer the best playback running on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and that both tablets had suffered a degradation of video playback after updating to Android 4.4 KitKat. While OptoFidelity does not know why updating to Android 4.4 KitKat results in worse video playback, they did state that this is something users need to take note of. Anyone with Android 4.4 KitKat can attest to their claims?

Android 4.4 KitKat Reportedly Degrades Video Playback original content from Ubergizmo.

Space junk is a serious problem: it threatens satellites and spacecraft, and can plummet unpredictably to earth. Australia’s Murchison Widefield Array is a high-sensitivity radio telescope that tracks space debris as small as 1 meter across, by observing how the objects reflect FM signals from Australian radio stations. It’s listening to pop music from space.

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