Hasta La Gadget!

I don’t know why this keeps happening to people. Maybe because some people just don’t do their research first before handing over their money?

Regardless, this story should be a cautionary tale to most people who buy gadgets from unauthorized and unverified merchants online.

An Australian woman wanted to buy two (presumably unlocked) iPhones, so instead of going to an Apple store, she went on Gumtree and posted an ad in the classifieds. Another woman answered her ad, and they reached an agreement.

They met at a nearby McDonald’s, where the first woman handed AU$1,500 (~ $1,300 USD) to the seller. The latter, in turn, handed her two iPhone boxes were each supposed to contain one brand-new iPhone. Instead, when the buyer got home and opened the boxes, she found an actual apple inside. As in, the fruit.

Despite her stupidity, I feel bad for her and hope she’ll figure out a way to get her money back. But until then, those two apples are probably the most expensive ones she’s ever bought in her lifetime.

[Herald Sun via C|NET]

Last year we heard about Monitor2Go, a portable external monitor. It seems very well made and has lots of convenient features, but it’s also expensive. The Able-HD is on the other end of the spectrum. It’s a portable monitor at nearly a third of the price of Monitor2Go. There’s a reason it’s cheap though.

The Able-HD is basically a 17″ or 18″ LED laptop monitor. It just has a custom circuit board that makes it work without the rest of the laptop. Otherwise, it’s a standard LED monitor. It’s a 1080p display, it accepts HDMI, DVI, VGA and audio ports and it has a socket for a charger. With all of the unnecessary parts stripped away, the Able-HD weighs just 570g (approx. 1.26lb). In other words, it’s an 17″ or 18″ 1080p monitor that weighs less than an iPad.

Actually it is missing one necessary part: an external case. Its anonymous inventor said that future versions may have an aluminum case, but the first version of Able-HD – the one he’s offering as a reward on Kickstarter – will look exactly like the one you saw in the video. At least you can get or make a case with the money you save. Pledge at least $110 (USD) on Kickstarter to get an Able-HD as a reward. If you have a spare laptop screen, you can just pledge $35 to get the Able-HD conversion kit.

Want to take a virtual field trip? Or find a pizza place nearby? Or break up with someone? Well, there’s an app for that. And I mean, all of that.

The apps for the first two functions have been around for a while now. As for the third function – well, let’s just say the app for that went viral recently.

It’s called the BreakUp Text app and it will apparently break up with your not-so-significant-anymore other for you. Via text. Because yeah, some people actually do that and if you don’t have the guts to do it yourself, then you might find some use for this.

You can choose from serious and casual reasons for the break-up. Aside from that, you can also use the app to pen longer, supposedly heartfelt messages about why you want to end the relationship. Some people might take this as a joke, but don’t be surprised when others take this seriously as well.

One of the app’s creators, Jake Levine, explained: “As much as we did it as a joke, it has sort of captured a moment in time when tech is becoming more pervasive in our lives and relationships.”

Curious? The app can be downloaded from the iTunes app store for $0.99.

[via C|NET]

For kids, field trips are one of the biggest highlights in school. They offer a temporary escape from the dreary confines of the classroom once every few months (or weeks, if they’re lucky.)

Just because you’re all grown up now doesn’t mean you can’t go on field trips anymore.

You might not be in school anymore, but if you’ve got a smartphone, then a whole new world of possibilities and new discoveries is open to you, right here, right now. Just download the Field Trip app and you’re good to go. It’s an interactive app by Google internal startup NianticLab that shows you cool, unusual, and sometimes historically-rich stuff that can be found around your neighborhood, or wherever you happen to be at the moment.

The app can be customized based on your personal interests, and gathers data from a variety of data sources, including Arcadia, Historvius, TimeOut, Thrillist, Food Network, Zagat, Eater, Atlas Obscura, Dezeen, Daily Secret, Cool Hunting, Freshome, Inhabitat, Songkick and more. It can also be set to automatically notify you when there’s something interesting nearby.

If you’re traveling somewhere, just fire up and the app and get ready to take yourself (and whoever else is with you) on a field trip.

You can download the Field Trip app at Google Play and the iTunes store.

[via Laughing Squid]

Back in January, we heard about the mobile variant of the Ubuntu operating system and Canonical’s plan to launch phones that double as Ubuntu desktop PCs when docked. Now the company is launching the most ambitious crowdfunding campaign yet. It hopes to raise $32 million to release the high-end Ubuntu Edge smartphone.

Aside from the mind-boggling target amount, Canonical’s crowdfunding campaign is also unique in that the Ubuntu Edge will be given only to the backers; it won’t be sold to anyone else or released commercially. The Edge is meant to be a testbed for cutting edge technology, and I suppose to convince other smartphone makers that there is a legitimate demand for Ubuntu phones. To that end, Canonical aims to pack the best hardware it can on the Edge. It will have a multi-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB of storage and two LTE antennas (one for US and one for Europe, so you can take advantage of LTE in more countries).

As we found out in January, Ubuntu smartphones will also run Android. This makes it very enticing for Android phone owners to try out the new OS: you still have access to all your apps and media, but you can also peek into the future. And that future comes in the form of a hardware dock and the desktop Ubuntu operating system. Dock the Ubuntu Edge into any monitor with an HDMI port and voila, you’re running Ubuntu. All you need is a keyboard and mouse. You can keep using Android or Ubuntu mobile on the phone while you’re using the Ubuntu desktop OS.

Pledge at least $775 (USD) on Indiegogo to get an Ubuntu Edge smartphone as a reward, and get a chance to see for yourself how far the penguin has come.

[via Acquire]