Hasta La Gadget!

Recently at IFA 2016, Samsung took the wraps off their latest smartwatch: the Samsung Gear S3. So the question is what will become of the Gear S2? Will Samsung discontinue the smartwatch? Will they stop supporting it in favor of the brand new Gear S3? The good news for Gear S2 owners is that they won’t.

Samsung has confirmed that the launch of the Gear S3 does not mean that the Gear S2 lineup will be going the way of the dinosaur. The company has confirmed that Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic will be sold alongside the new Gear S3 smartwatches, and that they will also still be eligible to receive updates, with the next major one coming by the end of the year that should bring it in line with the Gear S3, at least as far as software features are concerned.

For the most part we guess this shouldn’t be that surprising. Both the Gear S2 and Gear S3 aren’t too different in specs, with the Gear S3 packing a slightly larger display and a bit more RAM, and a larger battery, but otherwise in terms of storage and processor, they’re more or less identical.

We also expect that Samsung will eventually give the Gear S2 and S2 Classic price cuts which should make them even more desirable for those looking for an affordable smartwatch, but exactly by how much we can’t say for sure, but if you’re looking to save some money then maybe the Gear S2 and S2 Classics could be worth your consideration.

Samsung Gear S2, S2 Classic Will Not Be Discontinued , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

For the past few years, Nintendo has been region locking their consoles. For those unfamiliar with what this means, basically this means that certain games can only be played in certain territories, which can be rather annoying as gamers would then have to wait for a localized version which could take months or years.

Nintendo did promise they would look into it and last year we heard rumors that Nintendo’s next console could be region-free. Now it looks like those rumors are back and according to the folks at Let’s Play Video games, they have heard from their sources that the development kits of the Nintendo NX that developers have access to are region-free for now.

It is entirely possible that Nintendo could enable region-locking again in the commercial units, but if the reports are true for now, then it certainly is good news for gamers and developers. Let’s not forget that Nintendo’s rivals from Microsoft and Sony have long done away with region-locking so if they’re hoping to stay relevant in the console scene, this is something they need to look at seriously.

Naturally you guys should take this news with a grain of salt for now, but with Nintendo supposedly planning on revealing the details of the NX in full this coming fall, we guess we won’t have to wait much longer to find out what’s what.

Nintendo NX Might See Nintendo Do Away With Region Locking , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

According to an earlier leaked photo, it seems like Sony has a new phone in the works, and sure enough the company has made it official. Dubbed the Sony Xperia XZ, this is one of two new smartphones that Sony has debuted at IFA 2016, and if you’re after a smartphone with a great camera, this could be it.

According to Sony, the Xperia XZ will sport the “fastest, smartest, and most advanced” 1/2.3-inch 23MP Exmor RS image sensor. Sony is calling this “triple image sensing” technology that will make for quick photos even under low-lighting conditions, and will apparently be blur-free, but we guess we’ll have to take it for a spin ourselves to really see how it performs.

It will sport a 22mm G Lens, 5x clear image zoom, and will be able to shoot up to ISO 12,800. Its front camera is also no slouch with a 13MP 1/3-inch sensor. As for its other specs, the Xperia XZ will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage that can be expanded, and will also support LTE connectivity.

Sony has also adopted a curved display, although not necessarily in the same way as Samsung, as you can see in the images above. The Xperia XZ will have a Gorilla Glass 4 5.2-inch TRILUMINOS display with a Full HD resolution. To top it off, Sony is also boasting that the Xperia XZ will be water resistant. Unfortunately there is no word on pricing but it is set for a launch in the US come 23rd of October.

Sony Xperia XZ Officially Announced , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Let’s not mince words: Sony’s smartphone might be on the upswing, but the company still needs a hit. With any luck, the new, unlocked Xperia XZ can change all that. It runs with the same Snapdragon 820 and 3GB of RAM as the earlier Xperia X Performan…

Earlier this summer, I joined the ranks of the nation’s 34 million family caregivers. I became the primary caregiver to my husband, a role I was neither expecting, trained for, nor am especially good at. And just this week I learned that my caregiving responsibilities may escalate as we determine whether it makes sense for him to receive dialysis at home for what will likely be the rest of his life. For that to happen, I ― known as his “care partner” in all the literature ― will need to be trained in yet one more thing that nurses go to school for years to learn. I will have to be home every night ― and sober, as one caregiving friend jokingly pointed out ― to put the needles in his arm and start the machine just like the real nurses at the real dialysis center now do. I will have to learn how to recognize the signs of something going wrong, how to handle an emergency, and how to stay calm if something unexpected occurs. I will do this five nights a week, while I continue to work full-time during the day and take care of our two children.

The absurdity of this actually happening aside, I listened patiently as the doctor explained at-home dialysis to me and the difference between peritoneal dialysis ― (that’s a permanent catheter in his abdomen from which fluids are pumped in and out while he’s attached to a machine for about 10 hours a night) ― and home hemodialysis (which requires a fistula in his arm and me there to start things up and make sure nothing goes awry as the blood flows out of his body, is cleansed of toxins, and then put back in).

“It may prove technically difficult,” the doctor told me, “but it can be learned.”

“It can be learned,” I repeated after her, convincing no one ― and certainly not myself.

At this juncture, three months into having my family’s life turned inside out, I have just one question to ask: Does anybody actually give a rat’s ass about caregivers? Because honestly, it does not even remotely appear so and they keep piling all this crap on that family caregivers are supposed to do.

Caregivers save the government more than $500 billion a year by doing jobs that nurses and paid professionals should be doing. We do disgusting things like empty urine bags attached to catheters and measure urine output, clean ports, dress wounds, wipe asses and bathe bodies that bear no resemblance to the men and women we loved and married or who once gave birth to us. We cook specially prepared meals, test glucose from blood we draw, give injections and measure bed sores so we can tell the doctor whether they are worsening. We brush our patient’s teeth and hair, make sure they take their pills, remind them how the physical therapist says to “transfer” from being seated to standing. We do their exercises with them in the hope they will one day be able to tie their own shoes again, or speak coherently, or take a few more steps without a walker. But until those things happen, we accept that our fate is to basically wait on them hand and foot ― to do everything, no matter how much it grosses us out. I know a woman whose husband with Alzheimer’s likes to stash his soiled diapers under the bed. She says it reminds her of when the cat brings home a dead mouse as a gift. “Just not as cute,” she says dryly.

Among ourselves, caregivers bitch. We admit to one another that there are days when we hate our patients and hate ourselves more for feeling this way. We want our old lives back, the ones where our spouses were partners and not patients. It’s why we fly into rages when they cheat on their diet, refuse to take their meds, or want to sleep all day. We want them to invest fully in their health ― the way we have been forced to do ― and when they don’t, we want to thrash and scream at the injustice of it all. I remember a note a caregiver sent me: “Today is one of those days that I wish there was a plug to unplug.” We’ve all had those days.

Caregivers deal with everything. The medical care stuff, the appointments, the paperwork, the misfiled benefits claims, the bills that insurance should have covered but didn’t. We spend hours on hold with the VA or Medicare or our private insurance companies. We deal with the doctor who leaves a voicemail saying “better get him in here STAT because he needs a transfusion,” and then we deal with that doctor’s office staff who wants to schedule it for next month. We sometimes hear from an estranged sibling or sister-in-law with “suggestions” about what we should do differently. We call those the “dance on our last nerve, why don’t you?” calls.

Frustration is our middle name and anxiety management our game.

Personally, I’m just hoping to beat the odds that say caregiving could easily leave me dead, broke or both.

 Caregivers who drop out of the workforce because they can’t manage their full-time jobs along with their more than full-time caregiving wind up reducing their future Social Security benefits and retirement. Plus, no job, no contribution to a 401k. And  anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of caregivers die before their patients. Why? Caregiving is stressful. There is no breathing room, time for yourself, no ability to maintain friendships and connections outside the caregiving world. 

In the harsh light of reality, family caregiving comes down to this: It is the sacrifice of at least one healthy life in order to prolong the ending of an unhealthy one. It is very harsh, I know, but it’s the truth. Hearing that your patient isn’t likely to make a full recovery isn’t the worst news a family caregiver can hear. It’s that nobody can say how much longer this life-in-limbo will go on. 

Truth is, caregivers are the most overwhelmed group of people I have ever encountered. As one young military wife who cares for her husband with PTSD posted on a secret Facebook caregivers’ group, “Has anyone ever had a doctor ask them ― the caregiver ― how they are doing?” I’m betting not. And the answer is: Not very well.

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