Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve used a previous iteration of GarageBand for OS X, the update to version 10 of the software for OS X Mavericks shouldn’t require too much convincing. It’s essentially a new iteration of the same high-powered set of features with additional features to boot. But what about those users who want to pay the […]

Marvel Entertainment and Disney Consumer Products have announced they have teamed up to launch a fun new device – the Marvel Creativity Studio Stylus and app. The app and stylus are exclusively for the iPad and gives people who are fans of Marvel superheroes a place to learn how to draw, color, and animate their favorite superheroes and villains.

You can draw and color superheroes and villains from Avengers Assemble, The Ultimate Spider-Man, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Features of the app and stylus include professionally illustrated coloring pages allowing users to decorate their favorite characters with painting tools and an extensive color palette. The styles can be used to unlock the “Reveal” tool which lets you color images like the pros.

The app also features special touches so artists of all levels can successfully learn how to draw these characters including a side-by-side drawing canvas, trace lines, and a Drawing Scope feature. Users can also build and animate action scenes using character stickers, sound effects, speech bubbles, and backgrounds. Custom stickers can also be added to the animated scenes. The stylus is available with a limited-edition zippered case exclusively at Apple Stores for $34.99(USD). The app itself is free, and is available here.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) has just announced that when November 13 arrives later this year, it will roll out the all new PlayStation App. This particular application will target mobile devices, and folks living in the US will be able to enjoy it first, while our friends who reside across the pond will have to wait for slightly more than a week after that – November 22nd to be exact. Oh yeah, it is also nice to hear that the PlayStation App will not cost you a single cent.

Among the compatible devices with the PlayStation App are the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android-powered smartphones and tablets, where you can pick it up from the App Store and Google Play. I guess BlackBerry and Windows Phone owners will have to sit this one out! When installed, these devices will function as secondary displays in supported PlayStation 4 titles, while letting you access PSN features such as Friend Lists and Trophies in a jiffy. Hmmm, does this mean that it pays to have a higher resolution display on your mobile device in order to maximize the visual beauty of a PS4 title?

Apart from that, users of the new PlayStation App can exchange messages with members of their Friends List, in addition to browsing through news and information on the official PlayStation website. [Press Release]

Sony PlayStation App Arriving This November 13th original content from Ubergizmo.

Whether one has a modest monthly mobile data plan or an unlimited plan with a cap on, for example, 4G speeds, the waste of precious MBs cuts into one’s usage and is unwanted. Users on Windows Phone have been experiencing such extraneous data usage lately, something that results from the integrated Twitter feature, Microsoft has […]

I really love having Philips Hue lights in my house. If I could, I’d do the whole house, but for now, I’ve only got my media room/arcade/mancave and my foyer done up with the colorful remote-controlled LED bulbs. However, one thing that has always been a bit lacking with Hue is the standard control app. It’s pretty limiting – it doesn’t do light animations or even acknowledge the concept of different rooms in your house. A little app has recently surfaced which adds both of these capabilities to Hue bulbs.

Goldee is a third-party app which has been made possible by Philips release of an SDK and API for Hue. The application’s primary purpose is to add dynamic looks to Hue which go beyond the static scenes enabled by other applications.

To use Goldee, simply add your bulbs and rooms to the app the first time you start up, then tap on the room and the scene you want to run. With the app’s built-in scenes, you can gradually watch the colors in your room shift to set one of ten moods. Each scene has been composed by a professional lighting designer and it shows.

My personal favorites are the pinky/orange hues of Night in Paris and the blue and green tones Aurora Glow. When you first fire up the app, you get the first eight scenes for free.

Sharing Goldee on social media opens up the ninth scene, while providing a review gets you the tenth. This is a clever take on downloadable content – instead of charging money for these unlockables.

As you can see from the video below, Goldee’s color sequences change very gradually – this isn’t a disco app. Goldee provides soothing and relaxing scenes which you can live with while you sit in a room and read a book, listen to music or throw a dinner party.

Goldee also offers a wake mode which can wake you up to its Sunrise scene, though without any Hue bulbs in my bedroom, I didn’t test this feature. You can apply scenes to multiple rooms simultaneously, a pretty slick trick that no other Hue control app does as far as I know. While the initial 10 scenes are all pretty good looking if you’ve got enough bulbs, Goldee promises a library of additional scenes you can run in the not-too-distant future.

A couple of quick notes about Goldee you should be aware of: 1) the app needs to be running – and in the foreground – to work; 2) there’s no way at this time to make your own custom scenes. I’m hoping that these are addressed in future releases – especially now that iOS7 allows true background applications.

You can download Goldee from the iTunes App Store for free.