Hasta La Gadget!

He seems like a nice man, doesn't he?

(Credit: JokRKidd/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

In the movies, when police come calling, the ordinary citizen has two options: quake or pull out a gun.

In recent time, however, people have realized that they have a third, quite potent option: the cell phone.

They know that if they can film the experience, disbelief will have to be suspended, because the evidence is all too clear.

The latest example of a seemingly innocent man encountering a peculiar visit from a policeman comes from Long Island.

What the filmed evidence seems to show is a policeman wandering onto the man’s private driveway and suggesting that it’s illegal to wash his car there.

This seems a curious development.

Once upon a time, it was almost compulsory to wash your car in your driveway, a rite of community passage.

“This is a private residential home,” one of the car washers explains.

In a classic line that’s been heard many times on television and in real life over the years, the policeman replies: “Well, that’s what you say.”

As CBS New York reports, a ticket wasn’t ultimately issued and the local Garden City police department hasn’t commented on the even… [Read more]

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Magenta has started making waves again. A few days back T-Mobile CEO tweeted that the carrier is going to remove another customer “pain point,” he didn’t offer much details except that we should wait for T-Mobile’s uncarrier 4.0 announcement. Invitations have been sent out to the media, T-Mobile is going to make its hyped announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show 2014 in Las Vegas, next month. The media event has been planned for Wednesday, January 8th.

T-Mobile started off with its string of uncarrier announcements earlier this year, the first eliminated traditional two year service contracts on the carrier as well as device subsidies. The carrier also unveiled its Jump! program which lets subscribers upgrade their devices without worrying about eligibility. Only recently T-Mobile announced that it will offer unlimited global data roaming at 2G speeds with no extra cost. As per recent rumors, the uncarrier 4.0 announcement might be related to covering ETF or early termination fees for new subscribers that are switching from other carriers while their contracts are not yet up. Since these subscribers will be charged early termination fees by their carriers, T-Mobile would apparently cover that so these subscribers don’t have to pay a hefty fee just because they want to switch. There’s no confirmation of this as yet, so just wait until January 8th to find out what’s next from T-Mobile.

T-Mobile Uncarrier 4.0 Announcement Will Be Made At CES 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

Gamers rejoice, the Steam holiday sale 2013 has finally kicked off. Different promotions are going to be offered all day, every day, throughout the time this promotion is in effect. Discounts will be offered on a plethora of titles and there will also be flash sales that last eight hours as well as community’s choice sales. The Steam holiday sale 2013 will also offer enticing daily deals to customers who will be more than willing to get their hands on discounted titles.

At the time of this writing, substantial discounts were being offered on a number of very popular titles. Counter Strike: Global Offensive is available right now for $3.74 as opposed to its regular price of $14. Tomb Raider, Max Payne 3 and The Witcher 2 are up for $9.99, $3.99 and $4.99 instead of $49.99, $19.99 and $19.99 respectively. During the entire time that this promotion remains in effect, sales will continue to change and with Steam’s promise of discounts being offered for more than 2000 titles, there won’t ever be a shortage of titles to purchase. Voting for community’s choice deals will be conducted, the title with the most votes will go on sale and there will be a new vote every eight hours. The Steam holiday sale 2013 runs from December 19th, 2013 through January 3rd, 2014.

Steam Holiday Sale 2013 Kicks Off original content from Ubergizmo.

It has almost become the norm for flagship Android devices to be followed by “mini” variants that are similar in design to their high-end siblings but lack in the performance department due to different and cost effective hardware. The LG G2 smartphone was released earlier this year and it received rave reviews. Over the past couple of weeks rumors have been floating around about a LG G2 mini that’s apparently slated for a CES 2014 release. While LG hasn’t said a word about this variant so far, purported LG G2 mini specifications have been spotted online.

Apparently the LG G2 mini’s specifications were spotted on a GFX benchmark site, which picked up an unknown LG device carrying model number LG-D410, it is believed to be the G2 mini. According to the website, the D-410 has a 1.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, a 540x960qHD display and it is likely to come with Android 4.4 KitKat pre-installed. Additional specifications are not available at this point in time, but if the ones that have surfaced are true, then its quite obvious that the G2 mini is not going to be anywhere near the G2 in terms of performance. An announcement is expected at the Consumer Electronics Show 2014 in Las Vegas next month, so we’ll just have to wait until then.

LG G2 Mini Specs Allegedly Spotted original content from Ubergizmo.

Two of the biggest challenges with today’s desktop 3D printers are that they 1) don’t print very large objects and 2) are painfully slow. The Solidator 3D printer aims to change both of those things, in a printer that costs less than $5,000.

In the example shown above, the Solidator 3D printer was able to output a set of six Eiffel Tower models – each measuring almost 8-inches-tall – in just 5.5 hours. A similar feat on typical 3D printers would take days.

By using DLP imaging technology to print an entire layer at a time instead of a voxel at a time, the Solidator is able to print at dramatically faster speeds than most desktop 3D printers. This method of 3D printing involves using a vat of liquid resin that is designed to harden when exposed to bright light. Software converts 3D objects into slices, and then the projector exposes the photosensitive resin. Each razor-thin layer of resin hardens in about 10 seconds, and then the Z-axis of the printer moves.

The Solidator has a large output area, measuring 11.02″ W x 8.26″ D x 7.87″ H (716.37 cubic inches). For comparison’s sake, the print area of the industry-leading MakerBot Replicator 2 is 11.2″ W x 6.0″ H x 6.1″ H (409.92 cubic inches). Print resolution for the Solidator is also very good, with a typical layer height of 100 microns, though the z-stepper motor can move in increments as small as 10 microns. That said, 30 microns is the thinnest that can be printed with current resin technology. One limitation is the pixel density of the DLP projector, which reduces X/Y resolution to 270 microns – so objects printed with the Solidator aren’t as precise as those made with some of the better PLA and ABS printers out there.

But for many of us, our time is far more valuable than a couple of hundred microns of detail. If you need to create large numbers of small 3D printed parts, or if you need to crank out lots of prototypes, the Solidator could be a godsend. Since the printer’s Z-axis is where all the time comes in, the shorter your objects are, the less time they’ll take to produce. I can imagine cranking out dozens of 3D printed gears in just minutes on a device like this.

Resin for the printer will sell for as little as $50(USD) per liter, and will eventually come in a variety of colors. As an added bonus, the resin is quite durable when hardened. In fact, Solidator’s creators demonstrated the durability of printed parts by running them over with a car.

The Solidator 3D printer is available for pre-order via Kickstarter for $4950(USD) through January 3rd, 2014. While that’s certainly not chump change, it’s an impressive price for a printer capable of attaining such speeds, and with such a large work area.