Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft Chairman and Secret Santa Bill Gates.

(Credit: CBS)

Bill Gates as Santa Claus? That’s the role he played to one girl on Reddit.

Excited and shocked when she learned the source behind her generous gift giving, Redditor Rachel detailed the exchange in a Redditgifts post Wednesday night. Served up by the folks at Reddit, Redditgifts is an online gift exchange where people become Secret Santas by exchanging presents with friends and strangers around the world.

Rachel unwrapped the gifts from her Secret Santa to discover a stuffed animal that she added to her teddy bear collection and a National Geographic coffee table book entitled “Journeys of a Lifetime.” Also in the package was a donation to Heifer International made on Rachel’s behalf, a gift that she said nailed it since the organization tries to offer an education and other benefits to people in need.

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You can use a 3D printer to create replicas of items made in Minecraft. YouTuber ItsJustJumby did the opposite: he built a virtual 3D printer using Minecraft.  Actually he built a 3D modeling program, a computer and a 3D printer inside the game.

You can say that Minecraft itself is a kind of virtual 3D printer: you stack tiny blocks in layers and eventually end up with a 3D object.  But ItsJustJumby’s setup is more automatic and even has a crude user interface. I’m not going to pretend to understand how his computer processes the instructions, but I can tell that it both makes 3D models and builds the final object out of wool blocks.

Now all that’s left to do is 3D print his 3D printer.

[via Wired]

Apple is a company that holds plenty of patents, and this we know for sure. In fact, Cupertino has recently applied for a patent which will make use of various layers of information that have been obtained from the Internet, where users will be presented with what could very well be a “layered” map. Depending on your needs, the different layers could be made up of one for commuting, another one for the weather, while yet another points to tourist hangouts. The map itself can show off the user’s existing location, and to show off just how useful this could be in actual action, Apple did mention a scenario in its filing, citing a person viewing the weather-centric map, while noticing that a storm is brewing. With this “invention”, he will then make the switch over to a different layer, checking out a nearby shopping mall to obtain shelter from the incoming storm.

Not exactly a no-brainer of a move which you obviously do not need to have an app to help you out in the first place, but the usefulness would come in handy if you happen to be in an unfamiliar area, or are going through a Walking Dead class zombie apocalypse. Not only that, Apple also intends to make keyword searches smarter by taking context into consideration. For instance, typing “food” when you are in hiking mode will see results pointing you to camping supply stores. Pretty neat, eh?

Apple’s Patent Filing Could Point To What Maps Will Look Like original content from Ubergizmo.

There is nothing quite like exploring the different kinds of patents that companies have filed to see what kind of direction that they could possibly head in the future. Take Motorola for instance – it seems that they have a newly published patent application that point to a conceptual smartwatch device that has a display as well as a shell on the opposite end to flex in tandem with one another. The chassis itself would be pretty much similar to that of a metal watch band, consisting of links, and there will be grips located on each link that will be able to bend the display. On paper, it does sound like a pretty simple idea, something that might even see some of us go, “Man, why didn’t I think about that before?”

The thing is, this particular idea remains pretty much a patent that has been approved, and chances are we are very far from seeing an actual product roll out anytime soon. After all, Motorola would need to explore the world of flexible circuits before the world of bendable wearables are able to hit the mass consumer market. Bendable displays still have some ways to go before they end up as a common piece of technology found in consumer electronics.

Motorola Smartwatch With Flexible Display A Future Possibility original content from Ubergizmo.

Those Xbox One and PlayStation 4 gamepads you’ve got look a little underdressed, and not nearly enough like Batman. Thankfully, the Avenger Reflex is here to fix both issues in one fell swoop, appending a shell to either the XB1 or PS4 gamepad that …