Hasta La Gadget!

Modder Ben Heck has removed one of the few remaining advantages of videogame consoles over the PC master race: the analog stick. Heck sacrificed an Xbox 360 controller to make the W, A, S and D keys on his keyboard behave like the left stick on the controller, i.e. the harder he presses the keys, the faster his character moves in game. Or whatever “-er” is supposed to happen.

Aside from an Xbox 360 controller, Ben Heck also used magnets, Hall effect sensors and a microcontroller to complete the mod. He ends up with WASD keys that are much more useful in PC games that support gamepads. You can skip to about 10:00 in the video to see Heck test his modded keyboard:

If you already had your soldering spellbook and modding whatzits close at hand, head to Ben Heck’s website to grab the files and code you’ll need for the mod.

I’ll start out this review by saying that I’ve been an avid iPhone user since the day the first model came out. I just haven’t seen an Android phone I liked well enough to even consider a switch – until now. I’ve had the opportunity to use an LG Optimus G smartphone for the last several weeks (I tested the AT&T version) and I’m impressed with just about everything about this phone.

For starters, it’s just gorgeous. I know, so many of today’s Android phones are just black slabs, but this is one sexy black slab. The Optimus G is the same thickness as my iPhone 5, but it feels so much more substantial – with a little bit of extra heft, glossy metal bezel, and a Gorilla Glass 2 front, it just looks great. There’s also a layer of a carbon-fiber like material under the scratch-resistant back panel giving it a little added panache. This is one phone you won’t want to hide away in a case.

Like many other Android phones, the back, home and menu icons display on the bottom edge of the screen only when needed, fading into the background when not in use, and offer a nice haptic-feedback “click” when you tap on them.

Thanks to LG’s own display-manufacturing savvy, the Optimus G has got a screen that anyone would envy. The 4.7-inch IPS screen has a 1280×768 resolution (~318ppi), and is substantially larger and easier on the eyes than the display on my trusty iPhone 5. A technology LG calls “Zerogap” puts the display even closer to the glass of the device, which does give it a really clear, sharp image and reduces reflections on screen. I also found the display to be easier to read in the sunlight than my other LCD devices.

Under the hood, the Optimus G sports a fast Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, with four cores and running at 1.5GHz and 2GB of system RAM. This seemed to be more than powerful enough for running anything I could throw at it. The CPU and GPU-intensive game Death Dome ran a smooth as butter on the ample 4.7″ display. This, combined with the lightning-fast 4G LTE connectivity made the phone just zip along surfing the web and watching streamed video content. The stock 16GB media storage is upgradeable via a microSDHC card that snaps into the side of the phone under a protective cover.

The camera itself is solid, snapping sharp 8-megapixel images and 1080p HD video at 30fps. Here’s a couple of example still images shot with the camera. There are some artifacts and softness when looking up close at the images, but that’s pretty typical of compressed digital images. Overall, images were very true-to-life and color fidelity is excellent in daylight photographs. Photos shot in darkness suffer from significant noise, but the built-in LED flash helps improve portrait shots in low-light situations.

Click to view high-resolution version

While I tested out the AT&T version, it’s my understanding that the Sprint version is largely the same, other than its 13-megapixel camera – but word on the street is that the 8-megapixel camera in the AT&T version is as good or better. Remember, more megapixels doesn’t always mean higher image quality, despite what the marketing folks out there might tell you.

Click to view high-resolution image

Other camera features include a “Live Shot” ability that lets you snap still images while recording video, and “Time Catch” which automatically grabs a few extra shots prior to snapping your picture in case you’re too slow with the shutter. There’s also a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera which is nothing to write home about, but more than sufficient for video chats.

The Optimus G ships with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which is the first version of Android that I think beats iOS in terms of overall capabilities and uniformity of experience. There’s no official word on a Jelly Bean (4.2) update, but rumors abound that one will come out at some point. Though that’s obviously dependent on the phone’s carriers. I won’t talk too much about Android itself, but there are a handful of LG-specific enhancements that are worth a mention. The home screens themselves are highly configurable, letting you drag and drop icons onto one or multiple screens, as well as into folders, and to customize the on-screen size of folders. You can even create your own custom icons for applications if you so desire.

LG’s Quickmemo feature lets you grab and share a screenshot of anything you’re looking at and add handwritten notes or annotations – a very handy feature activated by pulling down the notification bar and tapping the Quickmemo icon. The feature offers a variety of different pen styles, and even a see-through highlighter.

Another slick feature is the ability to zoom in on videos you’ve already recorded – so if you see something of interest in a video clip, you can “zoom in and enhance” just like Jack Bauer used to do on 24. A couple of more esoteric add-ons include the “Cheese Shutter” which lets you remotely trigger the camera to take a picture when you say a word like “cheese” or  ”whisky.” There’s also the ability to clear icons and widgets from the screen using a special “pinch-out” gesture, though I’m not sure why you really need to do that.

If there’s any complaint at all about the Optimus G is that it’s pretty power-hungry due to its large screen and beefy processor. While I could get through an entire day with its 2,100 mAh battery with moderate use – playing games, watching videos and heavy 4G usage drains it much more quickly. That said, a typical day gave me about 9 to 10 hours of battery life. And since LG sacrificed a user-replaceable battery for better build quality and a slimmer form-factor, you’ll definitely want to have a USB charging cable handy if you’re out and about. I also found that I could only get about 3 days of standby power before the battery drained to 0% sitting on my desk. Not a big deal for me, since I’m always good about plugging in my devices every night.

Overall, between the speed, build quality, industrial design and awesome screen, the LG Optimus G is a real winner in my opinion. While I haven’t given up my iPhone 5 quite yet, I’ll be using the Optimus G as my preferred handheld gadget for surfing the web, viewing video content and for playing games.

You can find the Optimus G from AT&T or Sprint for $199.99 (USD), who both require a 2-year contract.

Disclosure: LG provided us with the device for review in this article. However, all reviews are the unbiased views of our editorial staff, and we will only recommend products or services we have used personally, and believe will be good for our readers.

The first TV remote control was released in 1951. The couch potato’s best friend has seen some improvements since then, but mostly in terms of its performance and capabilities e.g. no wires, more buttons and wider compatibility. A recent design project took a look at improving the physical form and ergonomics of the remote control as well. Here’s one such concept, called the Freehand.

Designed by ECAL student Cleo Jacquet, the Freehand consists of a pair of small buttons with suction cups on its back. Instead of coming up with a better alternative to the traditional stick form of the remote, the Freehand lets you define the shape of your remote. Do you always have a drink with you when you’re watching TV? Then stick the Freehand on your drink and make it your remote. Stick ‘em on your tablet or smartphone so you can multitask. Stick ‘em on your dog. Because you’re a free spirit.

Obviously the Freehand is way too impractical in its current state. But like the MaKey MaKey and AnyTouch, it’s a sign that the future of consumer electronics could have both software and hardware that can be tailored to our individual tastes. You can check out the other remote control concepts on Wallpaper.

Scientists and researchers around the world are always investigating better ways to help children learn important subjects like math and science. A group of researchers at Durham University has been working for the last three years on a project to design and develop the classroom of the future. The project is called SynergyNet and hopes to help children learn mathematics more efficiently.

The location is referred to as the “Star Trek” classroom because it replaces individual desks with futuristic communal desks featuring a multitouch surface. All of those desks are linked to a main “smartboard” used by the teacher. The desks allow students to work collaboratively on solving problems in ways that traditional pen and paper are likely to limit.

According to the researchers working on the project they have found that 45% of students who use the high-tech classroom increased the number of unique mathematical expressions they created after using the system. In contrast, only 16% of students who used the traditional paper-based method increased the number of unique mathematical expressions they created.

The system has a way to go before it might show up in classrooms around the world. Some notable holdbacks at this point are the cost of the system and the complexity of maintaining it.

[via Eurekalert]