Hasta La Gadget!

Don’t think the festivities surrounding Pong’s 40th are limited to official channels. Sander Veerhof of the Netherlands is marking the occasion in his own way with an augmented reality version built as a Layar plugin. Instead of batting the ball across a TV screen, players play across whole continents: anyone who’s been online recently is fair game as a fresh target, and the camera’s field of view gives a sense of where opponents reside in real life. Games won’t be nearly as fast-paced as you might remember from that classic system from the arcade or living room. However, they’ll still be reminders that people worldwide have a soft spot for the Nolan Bushnell title that arguably started the video game industry — and global Pong sure beats a game of global thermonuclear war.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Alt

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Source: SNDRV, Layar

The HTC One VX was slated to arrive on November 16th alongside its bigger brother, the HTC One X+, but when the time came, only the latter showed up — the mid-range HTC handset just seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. After a couple of weeks, it seems the phone will finally be in store shelves starting December 7th: “Yes, we expect to be fully stocked in all channels by 12/7,” said an AT&T spokesperson to us. So if you want to snag the VX with its 4.5-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 5-megapixel camera and 4G LTE speeds for just $50 under contract, feel free to mark the date on your calendar. Just make sure you use a pencil.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

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Source: Android Central

Just in case you were wondering whatever happened to that delayed-by-lawsuit 10-disc Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled Blu-ray set that captured a full series of the Disney / Marvel movies, Amazon is notifying pre-orderers (previously mollified with free The Avengers discs) of the new release date: April 2nd. While the original suitcase has been scrapped due to a licensing dispute with its designer, a recent post on Marvel’s blog revealed the set will still come in a not-exactly-S.H.I.E.L.D. briefcase complete with glowing Tesseract inside. The movies, bonus content, art cases and all are still intact, however with the delay have come a few extras. Buyers can expect an early preview of Iron Man 3 and the Phase Two series of flicks, as well as prop replicas and never-before-seen extras from the earlier films. The bad news? The price appears to have gone up, flashing a $219 MSRP and current selling for $197 on Amazon. While you’re thinking that over, check after the break for a clip from Thor that didn’t make the theatrical cut.

[Thanks, Jason]

Continue reading Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One Blu-ray set is back on, ships April 2nd

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Marvel Blog, Amazon

Think you’ll be ready to take the plunge on a gorgeous Tesla EV come January 1st, 2013? The Model S base model will cost you $59,900, a $2,500 increase over the original sticker price, which will remain in effect through the end of this year. Canadians will also be subject to a price hike of 2,600 CAD. Fortunately, you still have until “end of day” on December 31st to take advantage of 2009 pricing, so if you’re able to get your finances in order within the next month, it’ll surely be worth your while. Find the full scoop in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Tesla boosts Model S base price by $2,500 for new 2013 orders

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Autoblog

Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a prototype system that could one day aid the congenitally blind by converting video into auditory cues. The “Sonar Vision” works in a similar way to a bat’s echolocation system, but instead of chirping, uses a video camera embedded in a pair of glasses. A laptop or smartphone then converts the images into sound, which is transmitted to a headset. After 70 hours or so of training, that allowed users to identify objects like faces or houses, position objects in space and even identify individual letters. Surprisingly, researchers also found that after only several hours using the device, regions of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sight became activated for the first time in the congenitally sightless. That could possibly let doctors “wake up” regions of the brain never before used, according to the team, “even after a lifetime of blindness.”

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Science, Alt

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Via: Ubergizmo

Source: CEA