Hasta La Gadget!

Super Bowl ads tend to get a lot of attention and Microsoft wants just that for the Xbox Adaptive Controller. The company is returning to this major sporting event with an ad that highlights this special controller that makes gaming possible for the differently-abled. This is Microsoft’s first Super Bowl ad in four years as it last aired one back in 2014.

Super Bowl ads are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination which is why there’s always so much interest in them. Companies typically spend around $4.5 million per 30 second slot and that’s excluding the cost of production.

The Microsoft commercial highlights all of the different ways that this powerful controller can be used to play games. The Xbox Adaptive Controller has two programmable buttons which are fairly large as well as the ability to hook up to 19 jacks for various accessories. The controller can be used to play games on both the Xbox and PC. The company has even designed the packaging to be accessible.

The two-minute ad walks us through the story of several young gamers who have disabilities and how they’re able to play Xbox games with the Adaptive Controller. So it’s not more of an outright pitch for the controller as you’d expect from a conventional ad. It’s more emotional in that it tells stories that make you take a second and appreciate people who defy odds on a daily basis.

Microsoft Super Bowl 2019 Ad Highlights Xbox Adaptive Controller , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

When not building robots that we kill us and take over the world, researchers at MIT are working on robots that will just demoralize us and make us feel like losers. For example, this specialized robot combines vision and touch to teach itself to play Jenga. In case you’ve been living under a rock all your life, Jenga is a game of stacked wooden blocks where you have to pull out blocks without making the tower collapse.

The robot has a soft-pronged gripper, a force-sensing wrist cuff, and an external camera that allows it to “see” and “feel” the tower and the individual blocks. It can push gently against a block as the visual and tactile feedback is assessed from the camera and cuff. These forces are compared to other measurements. It can learn in real-time if the block can be removed without making the tower collapse. There’s no way we can compete with that.

Researchers think this technology would be great for things like separating recyclable objects from a landfill, and assembling consumer products. Then they just laugh at how much this robot will kick your butt at Jenga. Really they are just using their big brains to mess with us and to point and laugh.

[via SlashGear]

It’s been a rough couple of days for Xbox Live. Yesterday morning, Xbox Support alerted users to possible issues with downloading games, and though that problem was at least mostly solved by the early evening, this morning brought some new issues with it. For a while this morning, Xbox Support was reporting problems with Xbox Live sign-in and accessing previously … Continue reading

For many of us, having a personal speaker system at home is nothing new. Audiophiles are willing to invest tens of thousands to obtain the very best audio quality possible for their everyday listening experience, while the rest of us would most probably settle for a really decent set of earphones to tide us by. What happens when you have a speaker that is connected to Alexa, and also comes with a display to boot? This unique idea is the basis of the Mirage Smart Display Speaker from Cleer Inc.

Delivering a totally innovative spin in the realm of smart home entertainment, the Mirage Smart Display Speaker boasts of a unique curved display that is accompanied by the ability to dispense 360-degree sound. Underneath it all, the Mirage Smart Display Speaker will have the Qualcomm APQ8053 Smart Audio Platform to keep it running, where it incorporates flexible Bluetooth 4.2 + BLE in addition to Wi-Fi connectivity. Of course, this is not forgetting complete Alexa integration in order to have it deliver powerful and immersive connected experiences for the home user.

The curved display itself is guaranteed to turn heads and gain the attention of whoever looks at it, where it comprises of a curved 7.8-inch flexible AMOLED display that is capable of delivering an immersive viewing experience regardless of which particular angle you are looking from. With this special combination of video and audio output, you can always check out your schedule at a glance, remain in contact with family members, and even sing along to that brand new Top 100 hit with lyrics appearing on the display.

Cleer Inc. has also ensured that the integrated LED lighting will be able to have the Mirage Smart Display Speaker be at home in virtually any office or home environment. In Music Mode, the LED light will pulse in a synchronized manner to the current tune being played. Listeners will appreciate the rich and immersive, 360-degree audio attributed to the ringed 3.1 channel speaker array with passive radiator. With a $499.99 asking price, the Mirage Smart Display Speaker is certainly worthy of an inclusion in any home.

Press Release

[ Mirage Smart Display Speaker copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Juul Labs, the e-cig company under fire for its product’s popularity with young people, has brought on a new VP of Intellectual Property Protection with Adrian Punderson, formerly of PwC and Apple.

Punderson’s job is all about working alongside government agencies, as well as Juul Labs Intellectual Property VP Wayne Sobon, to combat the sale of counterfeit and infringing products. These can range from copycat vapes and pods that are actually marketed as Juul products all the way to products that are designed specifically to be Juul compatible without using the trademark.

These counterfeit and infringing products pose a serious threat to the company. Of course, no business wants its products infringed or its marketshare stolen.

With Juul, however, it’s far more complicated. Juul Labs is currently under heavy FDA scrutiny over the popularity of its products with minors.

“As you start to enforce generally on the sale of these types of products to youth, oftentimes they are going to look for another seller or distribution point of this product,” said Punderson. “The challenge is that oftentimes they’re going to platforms or places for this and you have no idea what the origin of the product is. A lot of it is counterfeit. So they get something they believe is Juul only to find out they have a counterfeit device or pod.”

He went on to say that, for Juul, a top priority is identifying counterfeit sellers and quickly putting that information into the hands of law enforcement. To the extent that they can’t take action, said Punderson, Juul will take civil action.

Part of the concern is that there is zero transparency into what ingredients are being used in infringing products, whereas Juul’s recipe at least meets the legal requirements for disclosure as it seeks full FDA approval.

Juul doesn’t currently have data around the scale of infringing products on the market, but counterfeit Juul products may inaccurately increase sales figures, intensifying scrutiny from the FDA.

Juul has already taken legal action against many infringing manufacturers and distributors, but Punderson aims to take Juul’s efforts against infringing products to a new level.

He sees the issue as threefold: Juul Labs must work to stop these products from being manufactured in the first place, ensure they aren’t allowed across borders into the country, and take action against retailers who sell infringing products and remove them from the market.

“This isn’t a problem where there is only a production problem but there isn’t really a distribution or consumption problem,” said Punderson. “We don’t have the luxury of looking at the problem singly-faceted. From a global perspective, we want to stop the production and distribution of infringing products around the world, and we’ll work closely with government agencies attempting to stop illicit distribution of goods.”

Punderson previously served as Managing Director of IP Protection at PriceWaterhouse Coopers, VP of Global Anti-Counterfeiting/Anti-Diversion at Oakley, and worked at Apple on the Intellectual Property Enforcement team.

Juul is currently viewed by many as a Facebook-ified, 2018 version of Marlboro. Notably, Juul Labs recently closed a $12.8 billion investment from Altria Group, the makers of Marlboro cigarettes. When asked why he chose to work for Juul, Punderson said his initial reaction was no. But that after he did some research around the mission of the company, and thought of his own personal experience losing his father to emphysema, he came around quickly.

“I would do anything to get two or three more years with my dad, who was a lifelong smoker,” said Punderson. “[…] We’re trying to do good things here, move people away from tobacco and give them an alternative. To me, it’s a valuable, noble cause that’s worth being involved in and I’m proud to be here.”

It remains to be seen just how big of an issue infringing products are for Juul and other above-board e-cig makers, but Juul is ramping up its efforts to combat copycats from getting into the hands of consumers.