Hasta La Gadget!

In the latest round of April fools, a number of high-profile companies have worked hard to make us smile at the office. We’ve selected our favorite gags of the day (with a tech twist obviously!) and while Google gets a commendation for being very prolific, others have done great April Fools gags too, here are our favorites, in no particular order:

Virgin Glass-Bottom Plane

The title says it all, really, but Virgin has come up with an interesting (or terrifying) concept with this glass-bottom plane. Can you imagine what it would be see through that bottom while you are at 10,000ft in the air? Actually, the landing would probably be the  most interesting part of the trip — let us know which one you prefer in the comments. Can read the fake announcement from Richard Brandson. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Best of CES 2013 @ Ubergizmo, Ubergizmo Gadget Guide – Nov 2012,

Chromebook Samsung series 3.

Just like set top boxes, which are dedicated devices for streaming video content, the Chromebook is a dedicated web browsing appliance. It is an inexpensive piece of hardware, running on a free Operating System, with free software and updates (OS, firmware and drivers), troubleshooting free, anti-virus and anti-malware proof and you cannot “mess it up”, even if you wanted to.

Now, assuming, somehow, it was “broken”, it could be restored to the factory settings with just one click, well, may be two. In case the device is misplaced, stolen or just died, there is no data loss, unless it was stored locally, no software re-installations, no reconfiguration. Put your hands on another Chromebook, login your gmail account and voila, everything should be where you left it off. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? The truth is I am as eager as you are to find out! The following is my review: (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HP Envy X2 Review, Samsung Series 5 UltraTouch Review (13.3″),

“The Cloud: is a term that most people have heard of, and many of us use cloud services daily. However, it’s fair to say many others are still using computing the old-fashion way. At times, it may sound like a marketing gimmick, but “cloud computing” is real and it can bring real value to just about everyone who has an internet connection whether it is on a computer, mobile devices and preferably all at the same time! In this article, we are looking at four critical aspect of your digital life that can be improved using cloud services: data access and organization, creative collaboration, data protection and gaming. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Graph Search: A Great Strategic Move, Ubergizmo Launches its Social Reader for Facebook,

Joining the handful of Insert Coin finalists at Expand is Azorean’s cute Ziphius aquatic drone. While Fort Mason is located by the seaside, the folks actually brought their own little pool along to let their Raspberry Pi-powered robot splash around in; though it can happily operate in seawater as well and thus adding more use case possibilities — be it for entertainment (including autonomous ball-chasing, for instance) or for environmental monitoring. Through a direct WiFi connection we were able to use an Android tablet to control both the Ziphius’ surprisingly powerful motors and its camera’s vertical position, as well as watching a live video feed at the same time.

The final version of the drone will come with an interchangeable chassis to suit different purposes or simply for personalization, and internally it’ll be equipped with Raspberry Pi’s upcoming high quality camera module, which will enable even better streaming and onboard 1080p 30fps capture. According to CEO Edmundo Nobre, the Kickstarter campaign will launch before the end of the month, and he’s hoping to bring the Ziphius to the mass market with a price point at around $200 to $250. Not bad, huh? Check out our hands-on video after the break.

Follow all of Engadget’s Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!

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