Once science fiction, it’ll be reality in 2014

Virgin Galactic tweeted a photo of the historic test flight SpaceShipTwo on April 29, 2013.

(Credit: MarsScientific.com and Clay Center Observatory)

Why wait for the future? We’re ready for science fiction to become real.

As the calendar gets set to turn from 2013 to 2014, it’s also time to get excited about the kinds of things that will be coming out in the new year that until now, would have been considered nothing but science fiction.

Thanks to advances in technology, along with the help of good funding, new markets, and good timing, 2014 looks set to be a banner year for new products and services that just a few years ago would have only been imaginable by futurists or sci-fi authors.

The future, coming to life in 2014 (pictures)

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BlackBerry teams up with Foxconn for budget smartphones as sales continue to plunge

BlackBerry’s new interim chief John Chen has just got a rude wake-up call: the company shipped only 1.9 million smartphones to retailers in Q3 compared to 3.7 million last quarter, and lost $4.4 billion. Most of the phones shipped were lower-priced …

Verizon will begin issuing transparency reports on government data requests in 2014

There has been a lot of talk going on around the country on the number of requests that the government is making for call data held by wireless carriers like … Continue reading

Smartphone Light And Appliance Controller makes life easier at home

smartphone-light-applianceJust what do you use your smartphone for exactly? Other than functioning as your primary communications device, checking up on your social network status as well as purchasing movie tickets on the go, some of us also use it as the regular alarm clock to wake us up at the break of dawn in order to meet a brand new day. Well, perhaps life for your smartphone could be a whole lot more than that – as with the $199.95 Smartphone Light and Appliance Controller. This particular system would allow you to be able to remotely control both lights as well as appliances even when you are not physically present at home, through the use of smartphone that is hooked up to the Internet.

This particular system will include a plug-in dimmer for a lamp, a wall dimmer for a ceiling fixture, a plug-in on/off switch for a single appliance such as a TV or stereo, and a base station that communicates with each through a home’s existing wireless network. “Smartphone” here, of course, refers to both Android as well as iOS platforms, so Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry OS owners will have to sit this one out. After downloading the app to your device, you will be able to gain access to the base station so that you can adjust each device’s brightness and timer settings, making it the ideal way to fool the outside world into thinking that there is someone at home even where there isn’t anyone.
[ Smartphone Light And Appliance Controller makes life easier at home copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Meta Pro Smart Glasses Wants To Take Augmented Reality To The Next Level

Meta Pro Smart Glasses Wants To Take Augmented Reality To The Next LevelWe’re sure by now most of you guys have seen the Iron Man movie franchise, and whether you love or hate the movie, the technology in the movie is pretty damn cool, in particular Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S. computer system in which he is able to interact with the system whilst in the Iron Man suit as it helps provide him with detailed information about his enemies, their location, patch him through phone calls, as well as provide statistics about his suit.

Either way it is pretty rad and a company called Meta is hoping to bring that same experience to the real world in the form of a pair of aviator sunglasses that comes with a computer attached to it. (more…)

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  • Meta Pro Smart Glasses Wants To Take Augmented Reality To The Next Level original content from Ubergizmo.

        



    Winamp and Shoutcast sell off negotiations tipped to be in final stages

    If you have been on the internet for a while, odds are you used the AOL software Winamp at some point in your web life to play your favorite music. … Continue reading

    Adding More Layers is Apple’s Patent-Suggested Plan For Fixing Maps

    Adding More Layers is Apple’s Patent-Suggested Plan For Fixing Maps

    It’s slowly getting better, but try as it might, Apple just can’t top Google’s Maps service when it comes to digital cartography That’s not to say it isn’t still keeping up the chase though — a newly uncovered patent points towards a raft of new features Apple has planned for the troubled service.

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    Gresso Radical smartphone runs Android 4.1.2 and quad-core 1.2 GHz CPU

    Gresso is the maker of some high-end smartphones that are known more for their style than performance. The smartphones from the company are often very expensive as well. One of … Continue reading

    HTC One Successor Rumored To Run Android 4.4.2 With Sense 6

    HTC One Successor Rumored To Run Android 4.4.2 With Sense 6While the HTC One was a pretty solid handset, it unfortunately did not do as well as it should have thanks to its delays which eventually saw the Samsung Galaxy S4 overshadow it, despite it having been announced earlier. However come 2014, HTC is expected to launch a successor to the HTC One, which at the moment is tentatively known as the HTC M8, although there are some who are referring it to the HTC One Two, which in all honesty sounds a bit silly. As far as specs and its design are concerned, we have a good idea of what to expect, although at the moment they are just rumors, but what about the software side?

    Well according to a tweet by @LlabTooFeR, it seems that we can look forward to the HTC One’s successor to come with Android 4.4.2 KitKat preinstalled, as well as a the next version of the company’s Sense UI, which we can only assume is Sense 6. This is good news especially since Android 4.4.2 is the latest build of Android at the moment, meaning that would-be customers can look forward to the latest software and not worry about playing catchup. As far as Sense 6 is concerned, we’re not sure what we might be able to expect, but hopefully we will learn more as CES and MWC 2014 come around.

    As a quick recap of its rumored specs for those who might have missed the news, the HTC One successor is rumored to feature a 5” Full HD 1080p display. It is also rumored to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and could sport the same Ultrapixel camera and Boomsound speakers found on the HTC One.

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  • HTC One Successor Rumored To Run Android 4.4.2 With Sense 6 original content from Ubergizmo.

        



    Your Gift Guide to the Home of the Future

    Your Gift Guide to the Home of the Future

    You don’t need to completely rewire your home to make it future-friendly. This holiday season, you can buy plenty of plug-and-play devices that will automate and app-control your house, and most of them cost $300 or less.