The first thing you notice when you pick up the Fire TV is how incredibly dense it is. It’s tiny and encased in black matte plastic, but it feels like a solid brick of aluminum. That’s not terribly surprising when you consider all of the power Amazon…
It would seem that Microsoft is aiming to become a much more integrated system this season with what they’re calling “universal Windows apps.” Speaking for “a platform for today and … Continue reading
A lot of folks say that 2014 will be the year of wearables, as in wearable technology. We’ve had wearable devices such as watches and cameras for decades, but the past couple of years we’ve seen devices like Google Glass, Pebble, fitness trackers and more. MbientLab is giving tinkerers and small entrepreneurs a chance to ride the wave with MetaWear.
MetaWear is a small, affordable and developer-friendly platform for creating your own wearable device, or at least a prototype. It’s powered by the ARM Cortex M0 SoC. It has Bluetooth LE connectivity and has a built-in accelerometer, temperature sensor, buzzer, coin motor and RGB LED. It also has two analog/digital I/O pins and an I2C bus. On the software side, it already has its own API, and MbientLab will be releasing open source Android and iOS apps for MetaWear as well.
In my brief chat with MbientLab’s Laura Kassovic, she said that the MetaWear can be used to build a fitness tracker that could compete with existing products like FitBit’s products or Nike’s FuelBand if you so choose, saving you a lot of resources in the process: “First off, you don’t have to spend 4 years at University to get your engineering degree just so you can write firmware. So that’s 4 years we are saving you! We are also saving you the time it takes to prototype, test, and certify hardware just so that you can put it on the store shelf. That’s another 4-6 months of reduced development time. We save developers 80 to 90% of their development time and cost with MetaWear (and I think that’s awesome).”
But Laura is also excited about the potential of MetaWear to enable tinkerers to create niche or even one-off wearable devices: “MetaWear will allow developers to create devices that large companies aren’t interested in building or devices that are very niche (and in my opinion, very cool). Perhaps you want to build a necklace that lights up when your Grandma calls. Perhaps you have an Oculus Rift and you want to add force feedback pods you wear on your body to create an even more realistic simulation. Maybe you have a pet iguana and you want to track its movement but you simply can’t outfit your iguana with a Fitbit Flex; so the natural solution is to build custom on MetaWear instead!”
So put on your best fitting browser and pledge at least $30 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a MetaWear kit as a reward. Go and get that Facebook money. Or make a fatness tracker. The power is yours.
The worst thing about feeding hundreds of mosquitoes on your own blood is not the itching – if you do it enough times, your body gets used to the bites. It’s not even the pain, although it is always painful since the mosquitoes will use their snouts to root about your flesh in search of a blood vessel.
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A Bitcoin ATM sounds like a good idea, but one does wonder how come the idea has not caught on already. Singapore has a Bitcoin ATM at The Spiffy Dapper, and for folks living in New Mexico, U.S.A., it seems that a Bitcoin ATM that was installed there had already been yanked not too long after.
Bitcoin ATM Removed After Debut original content from Ubergizmo. 
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When will Windows Phone 8.1 launch? At BUILD 2014, we’ve learned that we’ll see the next iteration of Windows for mobile starting at the end of the month. The rollout … Continue reading
Detailing the bits and pieces that’ll be appearing in the next Windows 8.1 Update this year, Microsoft showed off how they’ll no longer be so focused on touchscreen devices. While … Continue reading
Folks who live in Europe might be pleased to hear that they will soon be on the receiving end of a special edition Nintendo 2DS later this May. Of course, the Nintendo 2DS which was unveiled last year has not exactly burned up the hardware sales charts, but I guess one cannot fault the Japanese company for trying. Later this May, a special edition pink and white Nintendo 2DS would be revealed with Kirby: Triple Deluxe in tow.
Europe To Receive Special Edition Nintendo 2DS original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Having a video game that simulates that of an actual pet is not a new idea at all, where the Tamagotchi craze did kick things off many, many years ago. I clearly remember that the Nintendo DS did have Nintendogs that seemingly remained on top of the sales charts for the longest time (there were many different “breeds”, or variations, to choose from), and since we are now in 2014, it is about time a modern day handheld console received another pet sim title. The PS Vita will be on the receiving end of PS Vita Pets this coming June 3rd, and it looks set not to be any ordinary pet game.
PS Vita Pets Arriving June 3rd original content from Ubergizmo. 
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It’s a moment we’ve been waiting for for a long time. No, Microsoft’s various operating systems are not merging quite yet, but they’re about to get universal apps that work across all devices. Including the Xbox One. And best of all, you only have to buy each app once and it works everywhere.
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