The bright ball that hovers over Times Square on New Year’s Eve is special this year. Sure, it’s iconic and colorful and mesmerizing as it always is. This year, however, the ball will captivate us all with a brand new crystal coating. And, boy, is it pretty.
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If there is one particular flagship smartphone in the world that has received its fair share of different variations and special editions, this specific award would go to the Samsung Galaxy S4. After all, we have seen our fair share of Galaxy S4 variants, and even the variants themselves do come with a couple of models where there are variations underneath the hood, such as a faster processor and the ilk. The Samsung Galaxy S4 will now be made available in Thailand in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Crystal Edition, and there will only be 3,500 units of this blinged out mobile device available, so you might want to make a beeline for it if you happen to live in that region and love all things sparkling and shiny.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Crystal Edition will be based on the white colored I9500 (which happens to run on the Exynos 5 chipset), and as its name suggests, the back of the smartphone is unique in a sense that it comes studded with Swarovski crystals. The asking price stands at around $630 for an unlocked device, and it will only be made available from the Samsung Shop. In contrast, a stock Samsung I9500 Galaxy S4 would knock you back by around $540, which means one would have to fork out nearly $100 more for the Crystal Edition.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Crystal Edition Hits Thailand original content from Ubergizmo. 
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New methods for producing color holographic video are here, and they could lead to cheaper, higher res and more energy efficient TVs. Daniel Smalley, a researcher at MIT, built a holographic display with about the same resolution as a standard-definition TV, which is able to depict motion because it updates its image 30 times a second. The display is run by an optical chip that Smalley made in his lab for about $10.
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Ah, what better way to start off the week than by deciphering a cryptic message. Earlier today we received the above image from a mysterious company called Sugar, and that’s all there really is: some crystals in a candy wrapper, the tag line “The sweetest thing that you’ve never tasted before” (the Chinese counterpart implies “irresistible sweetness”), plus the words “July. Austria. Wattens. Unlock.” along the bottom.
As it turns out, Wattens is where the famed Swarovski is based, so we’re going to assume this has something to do with the Austrian crystal maker. As for the “unlock” part, perhaps Swarovski is going to launch its very own bejeweled smartphones or even tablets under the Sugar brand next month? Whatever they are, hopefully they won’t be as tacky as what we’ve seen in the past. The sweetness would be a bonus, too.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
These days, they can put LEDs in pretty much anything, but I have to say that I didn’t think that stud earrings were big enough. I guess I was wrong, because these LED earrings will allow you to start flashing like a Christmas tree, no matter where you are.
The LED Crystal Earrings will definitely make you look high tech. I can certainly see these looking cool at a rave, nightclub or anywhere where it’s really dark. There’s nothing like flashing LEDs to brighten up the mood (except actual diamonds, of course). If you’re wearing these, people will definitely take notice.
The LED earrings come in red, white or blue. They come with tiny battery backs to power them, and they also come with rubber backs when you don’t want to light up the whole room. A pair of LED earrings will cost you $26.99(USD) over at ThinkGeek.
Scientists have long surmised that inorganic life is possible. New York University hasn’t created any at this stage, but it just produced an uncannily close imitation through a recent experiment. When exposing hematite particles (iron and oxygen in a polymer) to specific wavelengths of blue light, researchers got the particles to form crystals that metabolize and move together like a flock. If it weren’t for the lack of reproduction, the crystals would technically qualify as life — and one upcoming test will trade mobility for that self-replication. Accordingly, NYU sees the crystals not just as having possible uses for electronics, but also as illustrating that a finer line might exist between living creatures and synthetic objects. Whether or not the university ever meets all three conditions for life at once, we may have to reset our expectations for what chemicals can do when they get together.
Via: Wired
Source: New York University
Forming silicon normally requires extreme temperatures of more than 2,000F, with the expensive energy to match. The University of Michigan has developed a technique involving liquid metal that could shed most of the heat — and cost. By coating a liquid gallium electrode with silicon tetrachloride, researchers can generate pure silicon crystals through the gallium’s electrons at a comparatively cool 180F. While the crystals are currently small, bigger examples are at least theoretically possible with new metals or other refinements. Any eventual commercial success could lead to much easier, and likely cheaper, manufacturing for processors and solar cells; given that silicon still forms the backbone of most technology, real-world use can’t come quickly enough.
Via: Phys.org
Source: University of Michigan
A lot of people are wearing the stretchy rubber bracelets to identify their support for a various causes these days. Swarovski has a new bracelet uses that appears to be the same stretchy material, but adorned with black crystals and a stainless steel case that conceals a hidden flash drive.
The bracelet is made from black rubber and has 10 jet hematite crystals on the stainless steel centerpiece. There are some details on this will bracelet that are left the imagination, though. Notably there’s no photograph of exactly how you access the flash drive. We can assume that the stainless steel midsection somehow opens to reveal the usb connector.
What we do know is that the flash drive has just 16 GB of storage. The bracelet is available now for $175(USD) making it one of the more expensive flash drives are likely to find.
[via EverythingUSB]
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