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The new Kindle is Waterproof! Get ready to dive into books

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT

kindle-paperwhite-waterproof

Some times, a company gives you something you didn’t know you wanted, but that it’s so good you just got to have it. Such is the case of the new Paperwhite Kindle, which is waterproof.

Amazon knew they were onto something when they released their very first Kindle. The classic e-Book reader has been getting better and better with each iteration, but now they’ve come up with an improvement we hadn’t even thought about, but is absolutely incredible: the new Kindle is completely water-proof! And of course they’d need to get on that eventually, for the kindle is the ultimate beach / swimming pool companion, so how come none of us realized we wanted a Waterfi-treated Kindle Paperwhite before?

This new version, dubbed Waterfi, ships the same as any other Kindle, in the original packaging, and sporting the same appearance, it just feels a little bit heavier. The only difference from the Kindle you already know and love is that you’ll be able to submerge it up (well, down) to 200 feet in either fresh or salt water, for as long as you want. It’s not just splash-resistant, you can literally read underwater if that’s your thing. Showering with your favorite book has now become a real, worth-considering possibility.

The Waterfi Kindle costs $239.99 with WiFi, but withouth ads, and $299.99 for the 3G version instead. That means that it’s $120 USD more expensive than the regular version, but hey, reading Moby Dick in the tub pays off by itself.

Source: TechCrunch

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Super Mario Bros. Aquarium Edition – Your Fish Is In Another Castle

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Super Mario Bros. Aquarium by Kelsey Kronmiller image 1

Check out this underwater fish paradise influenced by the first level of one of Nintendo’s classic video games.

Fishes can't play video games. In fact, they can't do much of anything. But I'm sure if they could appreciate the tireless work that one Kelsey Kronmiller and her boyfriend put into this awesome Super Mario Bros. aquarium, they'd applaud joyfully with their tiny flippers in cartoonish fashion.

Kelsey, a web developer and graphic designer by trade, was inspired by a similar-themed aquarium  constructed by a Nintendo diehard a few years back, and decided to create her own. She used the familiar 1-1 level from Super Mario Bros. on the NES as her central theme, starting with brown LEGO bricks to create the platforms and castles that appear throughout the famed Nintendo game directed by legendary game-maker, Shigeru Miyamoto.

As for the warp pipes you see above, Kelsey repurposed PVC pipes and spray-painted them in lime green. They turned out pretty much dead-on. The flagpole, which Mario so fearlessly jumps to cap his level playthrough, meanwhile? Made out of an 11″ lollipop stick. Yup, if there's anything to admire about this aquarium, it's Kelsey's ingenuity when putting it together, which according to her took about a little over two weeks to complete.

Every piece of the tank was also sprayed with Krylon Fusion to make it totally fish safe, waterproof, and eventually a fine home for whatever fishy friends Kelsey decides to put into this fantastic tank. Geeze, if I were I fish, I would jump at the chance to move in there.

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Android KitKat 4.4.4 Is Here – What’s new?

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Android_KitKat_1

The new Android firmware update has just rolled out, and Google is fixing several vulnerabilities across platforms. Keep reading to find what’s new!

It hasn’t been all that long since Android 4.4.3 KitKat launched, but Google already noticed a couple of issues with it that they wanted to fix ASAP. That’s why they rolled a new update for their operating system last Thursday. So far, Android 4.4.4 is available at the Nexus Factory Image page for Nexus 4, 5, 7 and 10.

According to Android Engineering Program Manager Sascha Prüter, this update is very minor and just aimed at fixing some security holes, mainly the CVE-2014-0224 flaw, a result of the Heartbleed bug that made headlines recently. Other than that, the patch is supposed to increase stability and do some bug fixes, mainly the battery drain when the camera was on. It is unclear as of now if this patch will roll for any non-nexus devices.

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Google Gesture Concept Gives the Speech-Impaired a Voice

Posted: 22 Jun 2014 01:23 PM PDT

Google Gesture

Students at Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm imagined a wristband that could easily fit in Google’s portfolio. Google Gesture is a fictional device that translates gestures into speech, thus giving a voice to the ones who can’t normally talk.

The search giant has created software for the speech-impaired in the past, the app that translates speech into text being a great example. The reason why Google isn’t behind such a concept as the Gesture wristband is because such a device is most probably impossible to make for the time being.

This piece of wearable tech would be accompanied by an Android (what else?!) app, which would also be called Google Gesture. Judging by the position of the hand and the tension of the muscles, the wristband will be able to record sign language and transfer it to the app wirelessly, presumably via Bluetooth 4.0 LE. Once collected by the app, the data is translated into speech, so that other people can understand the gesture.

The idea behind the above video, which was created by marketing students at Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, is that a lot of interesting conversations never take place simply because not many people know sign language. It’s wrong to believe that just because they cannot talk, the speech-impaired have nothing to say.

According to the students who have imagined it, Google Gesture would be able to turn sign-language into speech in real time. While that’s a bit improbable, it would help conversations to flow naturally.

Getting lost in translation would be impossible with such a device. More than that, Google Gesture could help people to interact, regardless of their country of origin. I think that such a device would be great not only for the deaf, but also for people who interact a lot with other cultures. Seeing how a hand gestures means something in one country and quite the opposite in another one, it would really be something if there was no room left for interpretations. For example, “thumbs up” is the equivalent of a well-done job in most countries, but in Greece and Turkey, this hand gesture symbolizes an insult. Same goes for the “V for victory” sign that’s interpreted differently in various parts of the world.

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