Hasta La Gadget!

Looking for a cool Android phone, but don’t want to be tied down to a specific carrier and a contract? Thanks to YEZZ and our friends at Gear Diary, we’ve got you covered. If you’re the lucky winner of our giveaway you’ll be getting a shiny new unlocked YEZZ Andy A4 smartphone, with some cool accessories to go along with it.

One lucky winner will receive an unlocked YEZZ Andy A4 dual-sim Android 4.1 smartphone ($119 value), with a 4-inch WVGA screen, 1GHz dual-core processor, and has 32GB of memory. While it’s not going to keep up with your shiny new Galaxy S5, it’s a great everyday phone, and certainly a good idea as a spare in case your main phone ever breaks.

In addition, the prize pack includes a Neptor Dual Port Battery Charger ($49.99 value), which offers 5600mAh of power, and can juice up two gadgets at once. It’s also got a handy built-in LED flashlight. Next up, we’re throwing in a pair of Urbanears Kransen In-Ear Headphones ($39 value), which provide a secure fit, solid sound, a remote and mic for smartphones, and colorful styling. Last but not least, the winner will score a Kenu Airframe Universal Smartphone Mount ($24.95 value). This handy gadget snaps onto car vents and holds onto smartphones while you’re driving. It’s perfect for GPS and hands-free calling, and also doubles as a travel stand.

To enter the contest now, follow the directions below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Trouble viewing the entry form? Click here.

Giveaway ends 11:59pm Central time, April 21, 2014. Open to U.S. Residents age 13 and up.

DARPA’s Robotic Challenge Trials wrapped up earlier today, and the robot that reigned supreme is SCHAFT. The squat 209 pound, 4.85 foot-tall robot smoked the competition, scoring 27 points, besting its next closest competitor by 35% in overall points.

The challenge is focused on demonstrating advancements in robotics which could improve disaster response efforts. For the competition, the bipedal humanoid robots had to perform each of the following tasks:

1. Drive a utility vehicle at the site.
2. Travel dismounted across rubble.
3. Remove debris blocking an entryway.
4. Open a door and enter a building.
5. Climb an industrial ladder and traverse an industrial walkway.
6. Use a tool to break through a concrete panel.
7. Locate and close a valve near a leaking pipe.
8. Connect a fire hose to a standpipe and turn on a valve.

In the end, SCHAFT beat out numerous teams from DARPA’s home nation, taking the top spot in the terrain, ladder, debris, and fire hose tasks.

Here’s  Team SCHAFT explaining a bit about what makes their robot special:

The time-compressed footage shown below is SCHAFT practicing its tasks prior to this weekend’s event.

Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition’s (IMHC Robotics) robot did quite well, coming in second place, taking first place in the door and wall challenges.

While it’s the end of the line for some of the robots, the top eight teams will get funded to move on to the final rounds in 2014.

[via LiveScience]

This is the Grand Prize Winner of National Geographic’s best photo of the year competition, taken by Seattle-based photographer Paul Souders. It’s titled The Ice Bear, and it features a female polar bear staring at Paul from underwater. It’s an outstanding image, but I think the rest of his series are equally good—or even better!

Read more…

Whether you’ve decided to spend the day battling bargain hunters for an insanely low-priced wafflemaker or just chillin’ by the warm glow of your computer screen watching the mayhem unfold, we’ve got a little surprise for you. We’ve managed to snag a brand new Sony 55-inch 4K Ultra HD TV and we’re giving it away to one lucky Engadget reader. Those who passed by Sony’s booth at Expand NY earlier this month can attest to the fact that 4K really is a thing to behold. So don’t push, don’t shove, but do head on down to the Rafflecopter widget below for your chance to win. Of course, a prize of this size does have some region restrictions, so be sure to check the rules before entering. Good luck and stay safe out there!

Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt, Sony

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Microsoft has been going a bit contest-crazy lately with the run-up to and launch of its next-gen gaming console Xbox One. Aside from all the promotional contests for the system itself, last weekend it announced the “Made By You” Gamerpic design contest, which is still going on (deadline is Dec. 9.) Later in the week–two […]