Hasta La Gadget!

Ever wonder what kind of gadgets Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak likes to take with him when he’s on the road? Apparently, he likes to take all of them. He shared the picture you see below with Gizmodo, along with a blog post detailing all of the items he likes to take with him on trips. All of the stuff you see in the photo is either in his pockets or in his backpack when he isn’t at home, with the exception of one iPad, two iPhones, and one iPod Nano that belong to his wife Janet.

Even taking his wife’s things out of the equation, that still leaves an astonishing number of gadgets for him to carry around. Those all have to be charged at some point too, and Woz says that most of the USB cables and adapters you see pictured are with him at all times. The majority of them are retractable, which is lucky for him, since otherwise they would all tangle into one big heap every time he put them back in his bag.

Aside from the electronics, Wozniak also has a rather long list of odds and ends that are always present in his backpack as well. The list ranges from pencils and sharpies to binoculars and travel-size toiletries, so it seems like he has everything he would ever need to keep him occupied and up-to-date during trips. When everything is taken into account, Wozniak estimates that the backpack he carries around can exceed 50 pounds, which leaves us with just two questions – what kind of god-like backpack is Woz using, and where can we get one?

Click the thumbnail below to see the full-size image of Wozniak’s impressive collection.

Steve Wozniak’s travel backpack is filled to the brim with gadgets is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We hear more and more about military drones that spy or even conduct attacks, but a company called Rotary Robotics knows that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs can be used for peaceful purposes too. The company is working on bringing affordable drones to the masses. So you can spy on your neighbors and attack them with water bombs.

Rotary Robotics calls their project Drones for Peace. The company has entered the MassChallenge program – a competition for startups and entrepreneurs – to boost the project’s progress. As for the drones themselves, they won’t be as high tech as the ones used by the military (nor should they be). The goal is to create $100 drones that are meant to take pictures from the air. To further reduce the costs, these drones won’t be controllable. Instead, users will tell the drone where or what to take a picture of via a smartphone app. Once the drone is launched, it determines its movements on its own, goes to the right spot, takes the picture and goes back. So scratch the water bomb attacks.

There are already alternatives for sale like the Parrot AR.Drone, but a $100 drone will be a game changer. Rotary Robotics hopes that their cheap drones will help enhance activism and citizen journalism, as well as help people do their jobs and of course have fun. Unfortunately, once they see this, thieves and perverts will also no doubt be eager to take their lows to new heights.

[via Fast Co. Exist]

Earlier today, we finally got word from Skype concerning a bug that some users have been plagued with since June. The bug occasionally sends IMs between two contacts to an unintended third contact, which of course brings up some very valid concerns about privacy. Aside from saying that a fix will be rolled out within the next few days, Skype kept this morning’s statement on the bug brief, but this evening it’s being a little more specific about the bug, and it turns out its occurrence isn’t all that random.

Apparently, messages are only forwarded to a third contact when the Skype client crashes during a conversation. When that happens, the “last IM entered or sent prior to the crash” will then be sent off to that unintended third contact, which could result in a pretty dire situation if that most recent IM was about them. Hearing Skype describe it, the bug sounds like it isn’t necessarily unavoidable, but it also isn’t random, so at least there’s that.

In its updated statement, Skype also shared a list of which clients are impacted by this bug: Skype 5.9 and 5.10 for Windows, 5.8 for Mac, 4.0 for Linux, 4.0 for iOS, 2.8 for Android, and 1.2 for Windows Phone. If you’re using one of those clients, you’re instructed to download the latest client once you’re notified that an update is available, as that will likely include the fix you need to prevent this from happening again.

So, we’ve made a good bit of progress with this bug today. Not only does Skype say it’s working on a fix, but it also told us which specific clients are affected and what exactly needs to happen for the bug to rear its ugly head. Like we said this morning though, it’s still probably a good idea to choose your words carefully while we wait for this update, otherwise they might end up being seen by exactly the wrong person.

[via Skype]

Skype elaborates on instant message bug is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook has acquired the team behind Spool, a company that offers free iOS and Android apps that allow users to bookmark web content and view it later offline. This is just the latest in Facebook’s line of mobile and social acquisitions as it attempts to cash in on the increasing number of Facebook users who are accessing the site through smartphones and tablets. The price Facebook paid for the Spool team was not disclosed during the announcement of the acquisition.

It’s still unclear what the Spool team will be doing at Facebook, as the social giant only purchased the team and not the company or its assets. Spool announced over the weekend that its apps for Android and iOS will soon shut down, and since Facebook is leaving the company itself behind, it doesn’t sound like the apps will come to life again anytime soon. Still, the Spool team should be doing something similar while working for the world’s largest social network, with Facebook telling the Wall Street Journal that this acquisition will give the team a chance to “accelerate their vision.”

With the Spool apps going dark soon, it seems highly likely that Facebook wants the Spool team to bring their ideas (or something similar) to its own mobile apps for iOS and Android. If that ends up being the case, we’ll likely see the Facebook apps become easier to use pretty quickly. After all, making it easier to enjoy the web on a smartphone or tablet was Spool’s mission statement, so we can’t see Facebook wanting to put that to waste. Stay tuned.

Facebook acquires Spool team and shuts down legacy apps is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier today we told you that the teeny tiny Raspberry Pi is now available for general order without any quantity restrictions in place, but the Raspberry Pi news isn’t stopping there. A 5-megapixel camera add-on for the super-small and super-cheap computer has been announced as well, and it’s expected to cost between $20 and $25. Not too bad, so long as you’re okay with spending nearly as much on the camera as you did on the Raspberry Pi itself.

For its part, the camera doesn’t seem to add too much bulk to the system, but additional bulk is essentially unavoidable when the computer is only the size of a credit card. The camera – which attaches to the Raspberry Pi through a ribbon cable – should be available sometime within the next three months, so if you’re dying to put the add-on to the test, you don’t have much longer to wait.

Introduced back in April, the Raspberry Pi quickly took the world of computers by storm. It racked up an insane amount of pre-orders in a short amount of time, and even though the Pi is primarily aimed at getting kids interested in programming through inexpensive means, consumers made it clear that they wanted in on it as well. Founder Eben Upton told CNET that there is still a backlog of orders to fill, but with the Raspberry Pi Foundation producing 4,000 units per day, he hopes that it will soon be able to catch up with demand.

Unfortunately, Upton didn’t delve into specifics as far as a release date is concerned when he announced the camera during the Raspberry Jam event in Cambridge, England, so it looks like we’ll be left waiting for more official word on when this camera will become available. Stay tuned.

Raspberry Pi 5-megapixel camera add-on announced is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.