Hasta La Gadget!

Maingear, maker of the Pulse 11 we reported on last year, is back with its latest machine, this one boasting the special designation of world’s thinnest 17-inch gaming laptop. This machine packs many of the trimmings you’d expect from a gaming laptop, and clocks in with a weight of less than 6-pounds, something that makes […]

Microsoft’s Skype messaging and VOIP platform used to be a desktop application, but has since moved on to other platforms, such as mobile, and thanks to Microsoft making the Skype API available, there have been a number of apps and software that allows users to connect to Skype without having to turn to the official Skype program. Well it looks like all of that will soon be coming to an end as Microsoft has announced that they will be discontinuing the Skype Desktop API in order to deliver a more consistent experience across all platforms.

According to the Skype blog, “We’ve been working hard to develop new technologies and make improvements that will benefit Skype users across all platforms, especially on mobile devices. These changes will significantly improve the call quality and speed of delivery of instant messages, while retaining excellent battery life of mobile devices.” The blog goes on to state that they will be retiring the Desktop API come December 2013, “The Desktop API was created in 2004 and it doesn’t support mobile application development. We have, therefore, decided to retire the Desktop API in December 2013.” We understand there are some apps out there that allows users to connect to Skype along with a host of other messaging platforms, so if you’re using those programs, perhaps it’s time to give the official app a try.

Skype To End Desktop APIs In December original content from Ubergizmo.

We’re not sure if MacBook Pro owners have noticed, but your laptops come with built-in ambient light sensors which has been used for the most part to dynamically adjust the brightness of its displays, as well as adjust the backlighting of the keyboard. Well now it seems that in the recently OS X Mavericks, Apple has tapped the ambient light sensor to do more than that and will now be able to detect when users are not around their computer, thus putting the computer to sleep, spinning down the hard drives, or turning off the display in a bid to save energy.

This is according to a discovery by a developer, Moshen Chen, who initially found the code in OS X Mavericks, but had thought that it had something to do with the iSight camera, but turned out to be the ambient light sensor in this case. This has since been confirmed by The Verge as well, who in their own report states that, “after covering the camera but not the light sensor, we were able to delay sleep mode by changing the ambient lighting conditions.” Sounds like a pretty nifty function and one designed for convenience that the regular user might not even notice. At this point in time it is unknown what other uses Apple has for the ambient light sensor, but third-party developers have taken advantage of the feature in the past. What sort of upcoming features would you like to see in the future that will make use of the built-in sensor?

OS X Mavericks Taps MacBook Pro’s Ambient Light Sensor To Detect Movement original content from Ubergizmo.

We learned a long time ago people love their technology, with some even going as far as implanting them into their bodies. Earlier this year, we saw a man implant headphones into his ears, and today we’re seeing a man who put a computer inside of his arm. (more…)

Man Implants Large Biometric Computer Chip Into His Forearm original content from Ubergizmo.

Storm System Technology is bringing you their newest desktop PC, the Storm Power Extreme-G W8.1 Office SP. Aimed at corporate users, the system is equipped with a 3.10GHz Intel Core i5-4440 processor, an Intel B85 Express Chipset, an Intel HD Graphics, an 8GB DDR3 RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a DVD Super Multi Drive, a 500W 80PLUS BRONZE power supply and runs on Windows 8.1 64-bit OS with Office Personal 2013 pre-installed. The Storm Power Extreme-G W8.1 Office SP sells for 89,880 Yen (about $915). [Product Page]