Hasta La Gadget!

Hardware Battlefield entrant Pocket Drones blew past their initial goal of $30,000 last night after launching on our stage at CES 2014. The company, run by long-time friends and moderators of the Drone User’s Group, Tim Reuter, TJ Johnson, and Chance Roth, built their drones as an alternative to expensive, bulky toy drones.

They are currently at $51,000 on Kickstarter and rising.

“We’re a mission-driven company,” Reuter said. “Our goal is to put flying robots in the hands of as many people as possible. We think it’s empowering to democratize the sky.”

The drones can carry objects as heavy as a GoPro camera and folds up to fit inside a (big) cargo pocket or backpack. You can control it with your own RF controller or, with the right module, your tablet. The drone costs $415 for a model without a controller and $455 with controller. You can pledge here.

[CES 2014] Your smartphone is capable of so much more, and I am quite sure that this particular device will be able to do a whole lot more in the future as well as technology develops at a breakneck pace. Having said that, CES 2014 has been pretty interesting when it comes to add-on devices which will be able to transform a seemingly normal smartphone into a tricorder of sorts. You know, the device in the Star Trek movies that function as medical diagnostic kits. Take the Scanadu Scout for instance, where it has famous financial backers that include Yahoo’s founder Jerry Yang.

A prototype of the Scanadu has already been developed, but it is not 100% operational just yet, just like the fictional Death Star. Still, when the Scanadu is finally made available to the masses, it will still have another huge hurdle to overcome – that is, to be able to obtain the health regulators’ approval before it can go on sale. Still, optimism spills over from the Scanadu team, and there are already other models from the Scanadu family that are already in the pipeline. I sure as heck hope that these add-on devices will have a battery of their own, otherwise the smartphone’s battery had better feature a higher capacity.

Scanadu Scanner Uses Your Smartphone To Diagnose A Patient original content from Ubergizmo.

[CES 2014] Being a hotbed for technology, CES is an event where plenty of action goes on each day as various companies try to vie for the attention of the attendees when it comes to the different hardware and concepts on display. Gigabyte is no different, as this company that churns out motherboards, graphics cards and PC systems have just announced the next generation Gigabyte BRIX Pro, where it happens to come in the form of a compact DIY PC kit that will feature professional CPU performance as well as visually stunning graphics support. For instance, you will be able to find an Intel i7 Core 4770R processor underneath the hood that features the Intel Iris Pro graphics 5200 chipset.

The Gigabyte BRIX Pro just goes to show that size does not really matter in this particular case, where it boasts of the signature compact design philosophy of the Gigabyte BRIX series. Apart from doing plenty of hard hitting work on this puppy, the BRIX Pro will also be a decent performer when it comes to 3D gaming needs. Available in both black and red colors, it will ship with a Wi-Fi Mini PCIe module pre-installed, in addition to a power adapter and cable. You will be able to enjoy mSATA SSD and standard 2.5” SSD installation depending on your needs, and other connectivity options include Mini DisplayPort and HDMI ports on the rear panel, as well as support for the latest 4K displays via HDMI. [Press Release]

Gigabyte Announces BRIX Pro DIY PC Kit original content from Ubergizmo.

Whether for an impromptu movie session or to use as a giant monitor, there are occassions where one needs to connect their laptop to their television or other display. Such … Continue reading

[CES 2014] Video games have been frowned upon by many people over the years, especially the old school types, as they figure out that video games are nothing but bad news for young people since it distracts them from everything else in life, not to mention it also seem to promote an unhealthy lifestyle as one sits in front of the flat screen TV all day long, munching on nothing but pizza and drinking soda. Well, not all video games are like that, as some will require you to exert yourself physically more than usual. Case in point, DanceDanceRevolution Classroom Edition from Konami that will be introduced at a California school, apart from current programs in Florida, Georgia and Texas.

This particular collaboration with Zamzee intends to check out the impact of wearable activity meters which will be able to monitor health and activity levels of students in Florida, Georgia and Texas. As to whether this particular effort will be able to help reduce childhood obesity via school-based health programs, that remains to be seen, but as many things in life, only time will be able to tell. Personally, I would still recommend exercise and sports alongside a healthy diet as the primary way of losing weight, how about you?

DanceDanceRevolution Classroom Edition Could Help Reduce Childhood Obesity original content from Ubergizmo.