Hasta La Gadget!

Anyone who is good enough to enter MIT definitely has plenty of intelligence up there, and we ourselves have seen our fair share of breakthroughs and exciting news from MIT researchers over the years. This particular one that we are going to talk about today is slightly less serious, where it deals with tongue twisters. In fact, using a nonsense string of words that were specially thought up of by MIT researchers, it helped them in their investigation of speech errors and brain functions. In fact, it happened to be so difficult that no test subjects managed to repeat the phrase, which certainly gives it some ground to be declared as the toughest tongue twister in the world.

The phrase in question was “pad kid poured curd pulled cod”, and when volunteers gave it a go, MIT psychologist Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel shared that some of them ceased talking. She continued further, “If anyone can say this [phrase] ten times quickly, they get a prize.” I am quite sure that by now, you would have given that tongue twister a go all by yourself already, no?

What do you think of that tongue twister above? Was it difficult enough to ravel your tongue in such a way that you have decided to give up on tongue twisters altogether?

MIT Researchers Claim To Have Discovered Toughest Tongue Twister Of All Time original content from Ubergizmo.

It was just a few days ago when we brought you word that OCZ Technology Group has filed for bankruptcy, and if all were to be in good order, Toshiba could very well be the one to pick up OCZ’s assets afterwards. Well, while seeing a company fall victim to bankruptcy is always not a pretty sight, even more so when you have had some fond memories of the products/services that the company has rolled out or provided in the past, it is nice to hear that Toshiba has ambled along to acquire just about all of OCZ’s assets in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding – with an exchange of $35 million.

Of course, this move has been agreed upon by both parties in principle, but it happens to be subject to customary regulatory approval still. Both Toshiba’s and OCZ’s board of directors have already approved of this buyout offer. Ralph Schmitt, CEO of OCZ, mentioned, “Over the past year, OCZ has dealt with numerous issues which have stressed the company’s capital structure and operating model, posing a challenge to achieving near-term profitability. The combination of NAND flash supply constraints and credit issues have impacted our ability to satisfy the demands of our customers; this combined with increased pricing pressure in our industry have contributed to our on-going operating losses. On an operational basis, we completed a complex investigation, several restructurings and a multi-year restatement that added significantly to our working capital requirements. We have been working diligently on this partnership with Toshiba and we believe that this is the best outcome under our current corporate conditions.”

OCZ Formalizes Toshiba’s $35 Million Buyout Offer original content from Ubergizmo.

With the Microsoft Xbox One’s Kinect, one is able to use voice commands to perform a variety of actions thanks to the built-in microphone in the device. This includes starting up the console as well as navigating apps such as YouTube, but apart from that, what other voice commands are available? To save you guys the time and hassle to try and figure everything out, Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb has released a PDF on his website which is essentially the “cheat sheet” of Kinect voice and gesture commands that are available to gamers.

The cheat sheet is pretty comprehensive and even comes with diagrams to show gamers how to make use of the gestures as well, so if you’ve gotten yourself a brand new Xbox One and would love to take this feature for a spin, hit up the PDF link above for the details! Of course we expect that your mileage might vary, depending on your voice commands as there have been some complaints by gamers that the Kinect has a hard time recognizing natural language. Presumably factors such as your enunciation and accent might come into play here, but so far what do you guys make of the Kinect? Anyone have issues with the device recognizing their voices?

Xbox One’s Kinect Voice And Gesture Cheat Sheet Released original content from Ubergizmo.

One of the disadvantages to the Windows Phone platform is that it lacks apps. While having over a hundred thousand apps is definitely not something to snub your nose at, it still pales in comparison to the likes of the iOS and Android platform which probably numbers close to a million apps by now, if not more. Needless to say, that gap is huge but it seems to Joe Belfiore of Microsoft, and also boss of the Windows Phone division, tweeted his determination to close that gap by the end of 2014.

According to Belfiore, “We’re all gonna look back on the end of 2014 as the ending of the app-gap for Windows Phone.  The 3rd ecosystem is decidedly here!” As it stands Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform and BlackBerry are sort of battling it out with each other for the third spot in the smartphone market, although given the way things are, it looks like Microsoft might have the edge at the moment. It’s no small feat to close a gap of few hundred thousand, so it will be interesting to see how Microsoft goes about doing that.

In the past Microsoft has tried to court developers through financial gains, although we’re sure larger adoption of the Windows Phone platform would help increase developer interest as well. At least releasing popular apps such as Instagram for Windows Phone is a good way to start! What do you guys think? Will Microsoft be able to close the gap by the end of 2014?

Joe Belfiore Vows To Close Windows Phone App Gap By End Of 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

We’re not sure if this has anything to do with the poor sales of the Moto X, but it seems that Verizon is now giving away Moto X to customers who are willing to sign a new 2-year contract with the carrier. Sounds too good to be true? Well there is a caveat and that is customers will only be able to choose between the white or black version of the Moto X, and will not be able to customize it via the Moto Maker website where additional features, such as color options, engraving, and etc., are available. For those who aren’t too fussed about these sort of things, we reckon this makes for a pretty good deal.

Verizon had initially dropped the price of the Moto X from $199.99 on contract, to $99.99 on contract. However it was only a week after that Verizon announced yet another price cut, making the handset even more affordable at $49.99, but now that it’s free, we have to wonder if this might be able to boost the sales of the Moto X. Like we said the free option means you will not have access to Moto Maker, but if you’re perfectly happy with your handset in more traditional black/white finishes, then this is the deal for you. For more info hit up Verizon’s website for the details where you will have to enter the “vzwdeal” code to get the phone for free.

Verizon Now Offering Moto X For Free On Contract original content from Ubergizmo.