Samsung's Galaxy S5 already ripped off by Goophone days after launch

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices | Feb 26, 2014 3:42 PM CST

It's only been two days since Samsung's Galaxy S5 was unveiled at the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, but that has not stopped the phone from being ripped off by the infamous copycat smartphone manufacturer, Goophone. The device appeared on the company's website this morning bearing the overly obvious name Goophone S5.

The Goophone S5 copies the Galaxy S5 ascetically down to the last dimple on the rear and even appears to include a similar heart rate monitor to the one featured on the new Samsung flagship except this one is just a LED flash for the camera with no heart rate monitoring functionality. Hardware wise, the two phones are world's apart with the Goophone featuring a 5-inch 1080p display, 13MP rear camera, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on-board. A 2GHz MTK MT6592 octa-core processor, and 2GB of RAM are featured as is 32GB of on-board storage. No fingerprint scanner is present either, making this purely a look-alike copy and not a full on duplication.

This is not the first smartphone that Goophone has copied either, the company has knocked off everything from the iPhone 5S and 5C all the way down to the Galaxy S4, and the Galaxy Note 3. Tablets are not immune either with Goophone making a iPad mini knock off, as well as the Galaxy Gear and another smartwatch / fitness band. The Goophone S5 is out of stock at the moment, but will retail for $299.99.

Continue reading: Samsung's Galaxy S5 already ripped off by Goophone days after launch (full post)

Was this the ill-fated Nexus Gem smartwatch from Google

Charles Gantt | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Feb 26, 2014 2:51 PM CST

Last year we heard lots of rumors and saw several leaks surrounding a Google Nexus-branded smartwatch, but nothing ever came to fruition and the Nexus smartwatch never appeared. Today website, Android Police, has posted leaked photos which are said to be of the ill-fated Nexus wearable, but I remain skeptical. If true this had to have been a very early prototype or proof-of-concept type thing and nothing near a finished Nexus product.

The images depict a smartwatch that appears to be very bulky in design with a band that better fits a $10 Timex watch from the 90's rather than a ultra-modern intelligent wearable that one would expect from Google's Nexus division. The band does have one cool feature though in the form of a built-in USB data and charging port. Little clues are available to say for certain that these leaked images are the Nexus GEM though, and even the single image of the device powered on shows little useful information. Even the menu item "3 Bit Mode Apps" is useless as a deep Google search turns up nothing.

We do know that Google and LG are working together to bring a Nexus smartwatch to the market, but this device is most certainly not it. It does somewhat resemble Motorola's ACTV sports watch though, and could be an early prototype of that device, or even a fresh prototype of the smartwatch it has confirmed its working on right now. Whatever the case, lets hope that the end result of both Google and Motorola's upcoming wearables are more refined this this as they have some stiff competition from LG and Samsung to contend with.

Continue reading: Was this the ill-fated Nexus Gem smartwatch from Google (full post)

Opternative online test will give you a prescription for glasses

Shane McGlaun | Software & Apps | Feb 26, 2014 1:03 PM CST

I'm sure a bunch of people out there are wondering if they need glasses right about now. The problem for many people is that going to the eye doctor is expensive and takes a lot of time. A new service has turned up online called Opternative that will give you an online eye test and a legit prescription for glasses or contacts.

Once you get that prescription, you can take it wherever you want to have the glasses or contacts made. The test takes about ten minutes and costs about $35. The only potential drawback is that you need to pay for the test whether or not you end up needing glasses.

This is a real test according to the co-founder of the company, Dr. Steven Lee. Lee is an optometrist and he says that the Opternative test given uses a series of images that is able to tell what sort of eye problems you might have.

Continue reading: Opternative online test will give you a prescription for glasses (full post)

Square Pickup food ordering app testing now in San Francisco

Shane McGlaun | Software & Apps | Feb 26, 2014 12:34 PM CST

If you work in an office often the only time you can get out before closing time is when you head out for lunch. The problem is that much of the time lunch break isn't long enough to go to a restaurant, order, eat, and get back. That means you need a quick and easy way to order your food and get it back to the office on time.

If you are familiar with Square, the company that makes the mobile credit card readers and operates a mobile payment system, you might be interested in Squares latest offering. The new offering is an app called Square Pickup and it lets you order food from any eatery that takes Square payments.

The app lets you view the full menu offered for all participating restaurants, choose what you want, order, and pay in one place. That means all you need to do is drive over, get your food, and get back before the boss misses you at your desk.

Continue reading: Square Pickup food ordering app testing now in San Francisco (full post)

Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare launches on Xbox One

Shane McGlaun | Gaming | Feb 26, 2014 12:04 PM CST

If you are a fan of the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, you might recall the console game that we talked about at E3 last year. That game was called Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare and it was promised to land for console gamers this spring. This spring is here, even if it's cold in your neck of the woods.

PvZ Garden Warfare is now available for gamers on the Xbox 360 or Xbox One to purchase as a download. PopCap says that the PC version of the game will come later. Exactly how much later PC gamers have to wait is unknown.

The game has several multiplayer modes including two different 12 v 12 modes. Those modes are Garden & Graveyards and Team Vanquish. One of the coolest parts about Garden Warfare is that the player can choose to be a zombie or a plant. The mobile games always put you in the plants camp.

Continue reading: Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare launches on Xbox One (full post)

Team Group, Inc. and HKEPC Labs made a new Super PI 1M record

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | RAM | Feb 26, 2014 11:52 AM CST

Team Group, Inc. collaborated with HKEPC Laboratory for the 23rd time to make a Super Pi 1M record using TeamGroup ProjectX memory kits.

The team was able to set a new world record of 5.078 seconds for Super PI 1M scores, therefore beating the previous record of 5.094 seconds by Russia's Smoke Core. What made this very impressive is that the previous record was held for 7 months, therefore one can imagine the time, effort, co-ordination and patience it would require to get everything right to break an already impressive world record.

The overclockers used Xtreem Series' DDR3-2000 2x 2GB CL8 memory kits that used Elpida ICs. It was paired with an i7- 3770K clocked at 7.13 GHz and ASROCK Z77 OC Formula motherboard. The ProjectX memory kit was clocked with 11-7-14 timings 1T at 1,359 MHz. Both components were cooled down by LN2.

Continue reading: Team Group, Inc. and HKEPC Labs made a new Super PI 1M record (full post)

Drone ships may change the face of cargo shipping in the next decade

Shane McGlaun | Drones | Feb 26, 2014 10:58 AM CST

Odds are that many of the products that you buy spent some time on a ship crossing the ocean at one time. About 90% of the world's trade goods are shipped by boat. The shipping industry is gigantic and is worth about $375 billion annually.

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has announced a new plan for ships that it thinks could revolutionize shipping and save shippers lots of money while reducing pollution. The plan is to make drone ships that are controlled from a virtual bridge on dry land and have no human crew.

The ships would use redundant systems like aircraft and an array of sensors to see what is in the water in front of them. The crew is one of the highest cost centers for a shipping company with crew costs consuming about 44% of the entire operating expenses for a ship.

Continue reading: Drone ships may change the face of cargo shipping in the next decade (full post)

HGST announces first 12Gb/s SAS HDD, the C15K600

Paul Alcorn | IT/Datacenter & Super Computing | Feb 26, 2014 10:43 AM CST

The move to 12Gb/s SAS is beginning in the datacenter, and as per usual the bleeding-edge devices lead the way. 12Gb/s SAS3 SSDs were first, with three industry heavyweights leading the 12Gb/s charge. We have evaluated the HGST SSD800MM, the Toshiba PX02SMF080, and the Seagate 1200. Surprisingly, a few of these SSDs actually beat compatible RAID adapters and HBA's to market, but we are finally seeing the right pieces of the architecture all fall into place.

Of course the next logical step is to begin applying the benefits of 12Gb/s technology to the platter realm. The fastest HDDs are the first to get the 12Gb/s treatment, and today HGST beat the competition with the announcement of their new C15K600 family.

This 15K RPM HDD also brings a few new features. HGST is utilizing their media caching technology to provide significantly enhanced write performance over solutions with limited NAND or flash-based non-volatile cache (NVC). The result is two times better random write performance than current generation 2.5-inch 15K drives, and two and a half times better performance than 3.5-inch 15K drives. We are reaching out for details from HGST on this new technology, which apparently leverages a much larger 128MB cache buffer to achieve this spectacular performance.

Continue reading: HGST announces first 12Gb/s SAS HDD, the C15K600 (full post)

Hands-on with the world's first 4K smartphone to TV SlimPort adapter

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices | Feb 26, 2014 10:11 AM CST

MWC 2014 - SlimPort is one of those technologies that change up the game in a very good way, and now Analogix has raised the bar even more. At the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Analogix demoed its new SlimPort 4K line of devices that lets you take a 4K enabled phone like the Google Nexus 7 and stream the display onto a 4K TV in real-time with no apparent latency at all. This makes for a seamless gaming experience, something no one else has been able to do until now.

Johannes Knapp was on hand today to take a first hand look at the new SlimPort 4K technology, and as you can tell from the video above, SlimPort 4K is no joke. Over the years, many have tried to bring a latency free smartphone gaming experience to the big screen, but no one has managed to nail it as perfectly as Analogix has.

This also allows users to stream 4K video from their phone or tablet directly to their 4K TV, a handy feature for someone without a 4K streaming device. This video marks the end of our on-site MWC 2014 coverage, but Johannes will be back in a few weeks with live coverage from CeBIT, so stay tuned to TweakTown for that!

Continue reading: Hands-on with the world's first 4K smartphone to TV SlimPort adapter (full post)

MakerBot Replicator Mini 3D printer ships this spring

Shane McGlaun | Cameras, Printers & Scanners | Feb 26, 2014 9:40 AM CST

If you are the sort that likes to create your own stuff, you may think that having your own 3D printer is something that would make your life much better. The problem is that many 3D printers cost thousands of dollars putting them out of reach. MakerBot has announced a new 3D printer that also happens to be the cheapest one it makes.

The printer is called the MakerBot Replicator Mini and it was unveiled during CES 2014 earlier this year. The printer is now up for pre-order and you can get one for $1375. That is about half the cost of the full size Replicator.

As you might guess with the word "mini" in the name, this printer is for making smaller items. It can produce items that measure up to 3.9" x 3.9" x 4.9". The printer is built for fast printing and uses a build plate that requires no leveling.

Continue reading: MakerBot Replicator Mini 3D printer ships this spring (full post)

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