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.

This Doctor Who TARDIS Coffee Press is the perfect way to start your morning – for both you and a companion. I don’t know about you, but I need a good strong cup of coffee to wash the taste of that last season from my palette. I’m just sad it doesn’t make TARDIS noises and light up on top after your coffee has steeped long enough.

Sadly, it’s not bigger on the inside, but its 34 ounce capacity should be more than enough to keep you buzzing. We Americans prefer coffee over tea, but I guess you could make tea in it too. I don’t see why not. The Doctor’s TARDIS can do all kinds of things, but it can’t sit on your counter and make coffee, now can it? I’d say that puts you one-up on the good Doctor.

You may not be running around saving the world from Daleks, but at least you’ll be well-caffeinated thanks to this mini Police Box. More like a Police cylinder, really. Materialize one into your kitchen today for $39.99 over at ThinkGeek.

The polar vortex may be chilling much of the Midwest to the bone this week, but it’s cold as hell elsewhere too. And a dog’s place during these frigid winter months is huddled up inside with their people where it’s toasty warm. But during the last few days, multiple reports have surfaced of dogs freezing to death…

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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 ]

It seems inevitable that the high seas will eventually play host to a sort of proxy war as automated vessels clash over territory for the algae farms we’ll soon need to feed the growing population. But this rocket-launching robo-boat is a peacetime vessel concerned only with global weather patterns.

The craft is what’s called an unmanned semi-submersible vehicle, or USSV, and it functions as a mobile science base — and now, a rocket launch platform. For meteorological sounding rockets, of course, nothing scary.

It solves a problem we’ve seen addressed by other seagoing robots like the Saildrone: that the ocean is very big, and very dangerous — so monitoring it properly is equally big and dangerous. You can’t have a crew out in the middle of nowhere all the time, even if it would be critical to understanding the formation of a typhoon or the like. But you can have a fleet of robotic ships systematically moving around the ocean.

In fact this is already done in a variety of ways and by numerous countries and organizations, but much of the data collection is both passive and limited in range. A solar-powered buoy drifting on the currents is a great resource, but you can’t exactly steer it, and it’s limited to sampling the water around it. And weather balloons are nice, too, if you don’t mind flying it out to where it needs to be first.

A robotic boat, on the other hand, can go where you need it and deploy instruments in a variety of ways, dropping or projecting them deep into the water or, in the case of China’s new USSV, firing them 20,000 feet into the air.

“Launched from a long-duration unmanned semi-submersible vehicle, with strong mobility and large coverage of the sea area, rocketsonde can be used under severe sea conditions and will be more economical and applicable in the future,” said Jun Li, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a news release.

The 24-foot craft, which has completed a handful of near-land cruises in Bohai Bay, was announced in the paper. You may wonder what “semi-submersible” means. Essentially they put as much of the craft as possible under the water, with only instruments, hatches and other necessary items aboveboard. That minimizes the effect of rough weather on the craft — but it is still self-righting in case it capsizes in major wave action.

The USSV’s early travels

It runs on a diesel engine, so it’s not exactly the latest tech there, but for a large craft going long distances, solar is still a bit difficult to manage. The diesel on board will last it about 10 days and take it around 3,000 km, or 1,800 miles.

The rocketsondes are essentially small rockets that shoot up to a set altitude and then drop a “driftsonde,” a sensor package attached to a balloon, parachute or some other descent-slowing method. The craft can carry up to 48 of these, meaning it could launch one every few hours for its entire 10-day cruise duration.

The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. This is just a prototype, but its success suggests we can expect a few more at the very least to be built and deployed. I’ve asked Li a few questions about the craft and will update this post if I hear back.