Hasta La Gadget!

Wordsmiths go to great lengths to master a game of Scrabble or Words With Friends. Rarely are their efforts quite so calculated, however, as what we’re seeing today. After Google research director Peter Norvig used his company’s search engine to determine letter frequency in the English language, Deadspin and developer Kyle Rimkus compared it against Scrabble’s point system and available words to determine which letters generate the most value relative to how often they can play. In short: H, Y and Z produce the most bang for the alphabetic buck, while J and Q are plagues on the rack that are seldom worth saving for a special moment. We can’t guarantee that following the Google-derived tips will have serious opponents begging for mercy — a wide vocabulary is often the real clincher — but they may help a few of us wondering what to play on that triple word score.

Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Alt, Google

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Source: Peter Norvig, Deadspin

Big handset fans (we’ll abstain from the ph-word) will soon have another option in the Oppo Find 5, as it’s set to go on pre-order in China for 2,998 yuan ($485) on January 15th. That sum will get buyers there the 16GB model (pricing for the 32GB version in China hasn’t been released), which Oppo will drop in the mail starting on January 29th in all its 5-inch, 1080P, quad-core glory. The company said earlier that it would try to bring the natty looking model to North America, Europe and elsewhere soon afterwards, at $500 stateside for the 16GB model and $570 for the 32GB version. So, if other size-comparable models aren’t meeting your pixel-density needs, start revving up that plastic.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)

Source: Oppo Store

Like Lady Godiva herself, a phone dubbed the Samsung Godiva has been seen naked — at least as far as benchmarks are concerned. The site GLBenchmark has revealed it has a 1.4GHz MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 SoC on board, along with Adreno 305 graphics, a 720p screen, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and support for Verizon’s LTE network. Its SCH-i425 model number points to the possibility that it might be the successor to the Stratosphere II (which was known as the SCH-i415) and could therefore sport a sliding keyboard, but that remains firmly speculative at the moment. Yet, seeing as how Samsung’s mobile offerings at CES 2013 were practically non-existent, we’re betting the Godiva — unlike the Lady of Coventry’s ride in the nude — is more fact than fiction.

Filed under: Mobile, Samsung

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Via: Phone Arena

Source: GLBenchmark

It’s almost a truism to say that the Nexus 4 is near impossible to buy, at least for those who don’t want to pay a carrier premium. G33k3r, Rohan32 and others at XDA-Developers may just save us from camping at the Google Play storefront through a new software hack. Their work converts an LG Optimus G‘s firmware to that of an 8GB Nexus 4 by swapping every LG-customized software element with a Nexus 4 parallel. The nearly identical hardware makes for a very close rendition, at least if you discount the unavoidable design differences. If anything, the work is almost too faithful: the current hack turns off LTE, caps the internal storage at 8GB and even requires using Nexus 4 firmware for future upgrades. It’s possible to revert to LG’s code if there’s jitters, but it goes without saying that the overall procedure carries more than the usual share of risk when even familiar ROM flashers are warned to be careful. Anyone who throws caution (and the price of an Optimus G) to the wind can find their stock Android experience at the source.

[Thanks, Greg]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google, LG

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Source: XDA-Developers

Though Nintendo Wii U owners have been enjoying access to Amazon’s Instant Video library for some time now, today Nintendo and Amazon launched the service on the original Nintendo Wii. To gain access, all you’ve gotta do is snag the Amazon Instant Video application from the Wii’s Shop Channel and sync up your Amazon account in a few basic steps (as seen above). There’s also this Amazon page where you’ll head after syncing the account on your Wii. And then there’s this final step where you tell us why you’re still using a Wii for such things.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, Amazon, Nintendo

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Source: Amazon, Twitter – @NintendoAmerica